Bringing the Heat
by Flux Casey
Summary: Well his Mom could attract small objects and his Dad could breathe fire. So his quirk would be...
1. A Path to Greatness

On a certain day, at a certain time, on the edge of devastation and despair, a young man might start his journey to become the hero he always dreamed of being. A chance meeting between a young man with an impossible dream, and the man who was the very basis of that dream. The boy's world would be torn to pieces, but forged anew in the fires of his own courage, compassion and will. But what if...

What if...

"Can I be a great hero, even with a useless quirk?!"

The circumstances were just a _little_ different?

-(Earlier that day)-

"All right, as third year students it's about time you all started thinking about your futures. Now, I could hand out these career aptitude tests but," the teacher droned before throwing the test papers into the air and adopting a carefree smile, "Why bother? I know you're all going for the hero track!"

Izuku Midoriya shrunk in on himself as his classmates all started showing off their quirks. Some had potential. Like the boy who could shoot spikes out of his fist, or the guy who could turn his fists into rock, or the girl next to him who could shroud her hand in fire.

Oh, wait! Maybe he could... No, he thought slumping further, she probably wouldn't appreciate that.

Well, at least he wasn't the only one not using his quirk. Even if it was under very different motivations.

"Hey, teach!"

Oh, no. _He_ was talking. This ego trip could last the whole day.

"Don't lump me in with the rest of these rejects. I'm the real deal. The rest of these chumps'll be lucky to be a sidekick to a washed up D-lister!"

There he went again. How many times had Izuku heard these lines before?

"UA is the only place worthy of me!"

Thirty-seven.

"I'm the only one at this school who stands a chance!"

Nineteen. Oh, he was standing on his desk now? Should that get a separate counter?

Hm. Sure. Four.

"I'll surpass All Might and be the greatest hero of all time!"

 _Eighty_ -four.

"Oh, Midoriya you were also trying to get into UA, right?" the teacher droned.

There wasn't laughter. Well, that wasn't true. There was laughter but his classmates were at least trying to keep it subtle. He understood. Bakugou could be rude and abrasive but no one could deny he had the skills to back up his bravado. There was a world of difference between him and Bakugou. They weren't on the same level at all.

And then Bakugou overreacted, as was typical, slapping an explosion on Izuku's desk and branding a new scorch-mark on it under his palm.

"Listen up, Deku," the explosive boy growled, "The trying to be like me thing was cute when we were kids but get it through your thick skull! When it comes to the big leagues you and your shitty Hot Flush quirk-"

"That's not what it's called!" Izuku tried to interrupt, "It's called-"

"I don't give a crap what _you_ call it, that shitty quirk needs flushing just like the rest of you! Learn your place and go to some shitty fourth rate school if you wanna be a hero so badly! Save kittens from trees or some other worthless garbage like that! But stop pretending you could _ever_ be on my level, _you got that?!_ "

-(-)-

" _A quirk like that? You could be a hero with that, sure. Sign on at someone like Backdraft's agency and you could have a respectable career."_

" _What if I want to be more than just respectable? What if I want to be like you?"_

" _I don't know what to tell you, young man. You have to know your limits. Understand what you can and can't do."_

Understand what he could or couldn't do. Izuku wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry that the greatest hero in the world and _Bakugou_ gave him basically the same advice. Maybe Kacchan was closer to his goals than he knew.

Know your place, know your limits, stay in your lane. Everyone was telling him to give up. Settle for what was a realistic goal. But wasn't that the point of heroes? That they didn't settle for going with the flow and doing what they were "supposed" to do? They pushed themselves to the limit and past it to be exceptional. Was it wrong for him to want to do the same?

… All Might seemed to think so. Hard to find a better authority on the subject than him.

His feet carried him towards the smoke he'd seen from the rooftop. It was still billowing up, a black column rising into the sky. The fight was probably over but he could still watch the clean-up. Learn about firefighting. That was something he'd be good for, right? Be a D-lister like Kacchan said. No! He'd prove him wrong! He'd be a _C-lister_! Go beyond!

… Yeah, right.

He approached the scene, a crowd filling the alleyway entrance wreathed in smoke and flames. But as he got close, he was shocked by a sudden explosion! What had happened? Wasn't the fight over? He pushed his way into the crowd to see.

The sludge villain! The one from earlier! It must have gotten loose when he was hanging off of All Might!

The crowd were getting scared. The heroes couldn't do anything and the villain had captured someone. They wondered aloud where All Might was and why he hadn't rushed in to stop the villain.

Because he couldn't. Izuku knew. He had wasted all of All Might's time on himself. And now someone might die because of it.

The person inside was still struggling. Spiked blond hair visible under the viscous form, angry, defiant eyes.

And for a single moment-

 _Fear._

Izuku _moved_. He ran thoughtlessly, bursting out of the crowd of bystanders, between the pro heroes utterly blindsided by a lone boy rushing headlong into danger. They tried to grab him, to stop him, but too late.

Izuku kept running. Even as he screamed at himself to stop, he couldn't! So with his mind already set to whatever madness it had latched on to, he put it to work in making it turn out okay. All of the studying he had done of pro heroes, all of the work he put in to finding uses for his quirk. In the end, he only had two things.

He threw his bag, left open from earlier when he was looking at All Might's autograph. Books and school supplies scattered out of it, doing little but irritate the sludge man and catch it in the eye. It distracted him enough that Bakugou's head was freed. "What the hell are you doing, Deku?!" the explosive boy yelled even as he drew in a much needed breath.

"I couldn't just stand there and watch you die!"

Finding his scrabbling at the goo as useless as it had been when _he_ had been trapped in it, Izuku moved on to plan B. It was the only attack strategy he had for his quirk. And it just so happened he was in the perfect environment for it!

But... Plan B was not to be. All Might came in at the last moment to save the day. It was a bittersweet moment. All Might put himself on the line to save someone, and it almost sounded like he was thanking Izuku for inspiring him? Maybe that part was wishful thinking, though. But even as his reawakened understanding of consequences helpfully reminded him that if he _had_ used his quirk on the villain it would be a crime, he couldn't help feel like... Maybe he had missed his shot. To prove to himself that he really could be a hero.

Oh well. Too late now.

-(-)-

" _Izuku Midoriya. You too can become a great hero."_

An offer from the greatest hero in the world. A chance to be an amazing hero like him. To be his successor.

Was there any chance he would say _no_?

And so began the most gruelling year of his life up to that point. Izuku had thought he was in decent shape before. He was going to be a hero after all and they needed to be at least above average. But what All Might was looking for was something on an entirely different level of fitness. Strength training. Agility training. Flexibility training. A strict diet. Strictly regimented rest periods. And of course on top of all of that he needed to study for the written section of the UA entrance exam. Even ignoring their hero program, UA was still one of the top high schools in the country. The academic requirements for the hero course were lower than general studies (and _much_ lower than the support and business departments) but they were still substantial. He couldn't afford to slip up on something like that.

Heroes were supposed to go above and beyond. That's the kind of person All Might had said Izuku had proven himself to be. It wasn't just something he _wanted_ to be anymore. It was an expectation now. He _had_ to be better. No matter the hardships, he had to push through and be victorious.

And so he had done everything in All Might's plan and then some, even going so far as to discretely exercise in class. He had fallen asleep at the dinner table once or twice. Or... fourteen times. But it was worth it! Well... Except that time he passed out and All Might got mad at him. But then he relented and changed the plan so everything would be back on schedule! Tacit approval was just as good as actual approval as far as Izuku was concerned!

So he went back to going along with the plan. And he never did extra except for those handful of times where he absolutely did extra.

And in the end, it was all worth it! The task was complete with a couple of days to spare! He could rest up and be raring to go for the exam! And he could maybe practice with One for All a little and not think about how he got it at all because it was gross. That was a bit closer to All Might than he really wanted to get.

And so there he was. On the now beautiful Dagobah Beach. A great betterment of the city that _he_ made happen! Heroes were pillars of the community, that's what All Might said and now he was a step closer to being like them!

" **Well now, young man! You pulled through with your training and you've inherited my quirk! Now, let's see how you handle it!"** All Might in his pumped up form said boisterously. **"One for All is a power that enhances every part of you! It is stockpiled** _ **power**_ **! It makes you more** _ **powerful**_ **in every way imaginable! Your strength, your speed, even your own quirk!"**

"My quirk?" Deku asked.

" **Indeed! And since the physical aspects might have a dangerous backlash, we're going to start with your quirk. Behold!"** the hero announced as he used his incredible power to... Build a bonfire. The speed he did it was impressive but that use of his power was incredibly mundane. **"You said when we met your quirk gives you the power to attract hot things, yes?"**

"Yeah? It's called Heat-Sink. It's not exactly that useful..."

" **I think you underestimate what can be useful to a hero! Power and versatility can be a boon, that's true! But whether you're small time or one of the Top Ten, it's all about leveraging what you have for all it's worth!"**

"If you say so, All Might."

The hero let out a disapproving **"Hmmmm,"** at the fanboy's noncommital response. **"What was the range you could pull from?"**

"About three meters."

" **Good! We'll start at five! Pull with all you got! Dig deep for that power and yank this"** , he presented a metal plate and planted it in the bonfire, **"towards you!"**

Izuku got into position about where he thought five meters was and stretched his arm out, tentatively pulling on the plate with his quirk. As he had done when he practiced with it growing up, he felt a connection form with the heat, a kinship with it, and he began to draw it in. The plate twitched a little in response.

" **No, no, no!"** said All Might, aggressively chopping the air, **"You know how this goes, fanboy! You wanna go to UA?! You know how this goes! Don't just pull! HEAVE!"**

"AHHHHH!" With a desperate yell, Izuku reached out with his power working harder than it ever had, something seemed to swell within him, something new. The connection pulsed, widened, twisted, _strengthened_ , and this time when he drew his arm in to pull the plate, the plate came to him. It didn't just come to him, it _flew_ to him! He had to duck out of the way as it whizzed past his head.

It wasn't alone.

The _entire bonfire_ came apart and launched in his direction, flaming logs bowling him over onto the sands, lighting him on fire.

" **Shit! Don't worry kid I got you!"** All Might shouted as he swung an arm to put out the flames with air pressure.

"Wow!" Izuku marvelled as he sat up, knocking a log out of the way, though it seemed to stubbornly cling to his hand. "That was something else!"

"Yeah," the hero agreed, literally deflated, looking at the plate still spinning off into the distance before gravity took a toll on it and it plummeted to the ground. "Maybe your way was better. Let's take it slow, okay?"

And so they continued, the training taking on a slightly different tone. Giving your all was all well and good but they mutually decided it was better to know your limits before trying to break them. They worked to find the limits of his power where they could predict the results. It was slower, but gave some tangible benefits. For one, Izuku's range and power with Heat-Sink had increased dramatically to the point they had trouble finding a hard upper limit. On the physicality side of things, he could power up his punches and kicks a certain amount. They very quickly found the upper limit for that as it started to cause him injury. Even still, it was a significant boost to his strength and speed.

They also found... Something of a downside.

He couldn't turn Heat-Sink off anymore.

The log that stuck to him like glue wasn't a fluke. It was only at a very close range and he could get them off with a bit of effort, but objects of a sufficient level of heat would just passively stick to him if he touched them.

What was strange was that what his power considered hot seemed somewhat arbitrary. Before One for All, his power seemed to have a firm minimum of around eighty degrees Celsius. The kind of temperature that would probably cause burns for most people (Heat-Sink gave him a somewhat higher tolerance for it). But after? It seemed to be all over the place. Cooked food counted, but cooled to room temperature it didn't. In-use cookware counted. But cookware around his previous minimum temperature didn't. Even rapidly melting but room temperature ice cream seemed to count!

"I just don't understand how this works!" Izuku complained as he tried to shake off a dollop of ice cream slush. "It doesn't follow any rules!"

"Patience, young Midoriya! These tests have provided valuable insight into the changes to your quirk!" All Might said, in his shrunken form but still making sweeping hand gestures as though he was still buff. "Now, let's try to figure it out together! The cookware was hot for the first test!"

"Yeah, but if a person touched it it would probably burn them for either one of them."

"Mm-hm," All Might agreed, grasping his pointed chin. "The cooked food counted even though it was below your old limit."

"But at room temperature it didn't," Izuku continued. "But then the room temperature ice cream counted."

"Was the ice cream hot?"

"Well, I guess for ice cream, room temperature is pretty hot-" something clicked into place in the boy's brain. "Wait, could that be it?"

"Oh? Sounds like you have a theory!"

"Maybe... What if my power recognises when something is at an unusually high temperature compared to the norm for it? That would explain the ice cream... No, it doesn't match with the cookware or the food. The cookware at least would be considered hot even at eighty degrees since it's normally at room temperature. And the food is normal at either, though I suppose it could be considered the upper end of the scale when it's fresh out of the oven. And even if that fit every test, that would mean my quirk somehow had an encyclopedic knowledge of what constitutes a high temperature for every type of object. I mean that's theoretically possible if it were drawing that kind of knowledge from _me-_ Wait! Maybe that's it! It's not just based on what _is_ hot, it's working based on what I _consider_ to be hot!"

" **Oho!"** said a now suddenly buffer All Might as he wrapped an arm around a slumped and muttering Midoriya. **"That would fit all of our criteria. Hot food works, but room temperature food is cold. A stove is hot when it's cooking but not when it's still heating up, not to mention someone like you who could take that kind of temperature wouldn't consider it hot on its own! And then the ice cream was so hot it was ceasing to be ice cream! For ice cream,** _ **that's**_ **pretty hot!"**

"That must be it..." Izuku breathed as everything slotted into place.

"Wait."

Well... Almost everything.

"How did your quirk completely change how mine works, All Might?!"

" **Ah, well, you see,"** All Might stammered, **"That's not important! What's important is, are you ready for the entrance exam tomorrow?!"**

"Oh, right! I need to go home and rest! Okay! I'm gonna ace that exam and take my first step to becoming a hero!"

As the green-haired boy jogged home, All Might let out a breath of relief. **"Phew! Nice save, All Might!"**

-(-)-

Izuku couldn't decide if he was having the best day ever or the _worst_ day ever. Though thinking about it, he could say the same about the day of the sludge villain attack. He'd had a lot more confusing days like this one since meeting All Might.

Made a fool of himself before even getting into the exam, talked to a girl for the first time. Did pretty well for himself on the written exam, kept getting glasses guy mad at him. And then he missed the signal for the start of the practical exam! He was already lagging behind!

At least he had a plan in mind. They were fighting robots! So in this exam he had a little more of an advantage than he thought he would! All he had to do was leverage his new abilities in the right way and he had a really good chance of making it!

Catching up to the other applicants, he found himself in a free for all battle between would-be heroes and mechanical faux villains. It was amazing! Much as it was terrifying, he'd been in worse situations and he'd had plenty of time to psych himself up for this. He was going to prove his worth and secure a place at the best hero school in the world!

And it would all start with this, he thought, as he reached out with one hand in the direction of the first robot he saw. He yanked his arm back and the robot, dragged along by its inner circuitry that was _absolutely_ running hot, followed the motion, narrowly avoiding a vibrant beam of blue light. Izuku meanwhile, turned his pulling motion in into a haymaker charged with just a miniscule fraction of All Might's power. Enough to give an ordinary punch the power to, as it landed on the out of control robot, crater the metal chassis and cause the head unit to pop off.

One point. Just a single point.

But it was a single point that meant everything. He could do this. He belonged here with these hero hopefuls!

And so that one point, became two points. Then five. Seven. He made use of his enhanced range to pick prime targets. Ten. Thirteen. There weren't any big ones left that he could see, so he moved in great strides powered by bursts of One for All in his legs, taking a route that took him past some low value targets. Fourteen. Fifteen. Seventeen. Another three was round the corner. Twenty. No more threes so he went back to cleaning up the smaller ones. Twenty-two. Twenty-three. One of the people who were talking bad about him before the exam was about to be blindsided. Izuku took a detour, yanking the robot away from its target before slamming it into the ground.

This power was incredible!

Twenty-four.

Was he doing enough? What was even a good score in this exam? He didn't know. He did notice how the exam worked though. It was pretty simple. It was testing how quickly and efficiently they could take down targets. The robots barely fought back, they were just meant as a slightly active threat. If you couldn't do enough damage to take one down or use your power in a way that disabled them, you failed. He'd seen one boy fusing robots into walls so they couldn't move. It didn't damage the machine but it shut down anyway, so non-destructive methods were fine too.

Of course they were. If you could stop a villain without even hurting them, that was even better, right?

Twenty-six.

Twenty-seven.

There was a rumbling sound. Deep. Foreboding. So heavy they could feel the sound through the ground.

The "obstacle" had arrived.

Izuku had a feeling he... _probably_ couldn't drag this six story monstrosity around so easily. But it wasn't worth points and Present Mic told them to just ignore-

"Owwww!"

… That girl. The girl that had saved him before was stuck right in the path of the giant robot, her leg trapped under some rubble!

He found himself having kicked off the ground, _hard_. Enough to hurt himself. He felt his bones and muscles protest against the pressure he put on them, but he got over to the girl in a single bound, stumbling and falling next to her as he landed. He didn't waste a moment, already lifting the rubble and allowing the girl to free herself. "Thanks!" she said as she got to her feet but quickly regretted it as the one under the rubble reminded her of the injury. Deku followed her example but found himself in a similar position. Hot lances of pain shot through his legs with every aching step.

"Come on, let's help each other!" the girl shouted, "We have to get out of that thing's way!"

"Right!" Izuku nodded, taking her shoulder as she took his, each supporting the other's weight when they needed it, pushing each other to keep moving and get out of the path of the giant robot as it trundled along behind them.

" **And that's it. TIIIIIIME'S UUUUUUUP!"** Present Mic's amplified voice sounded over the exam site. A siren blared to make sure everyone got the message that the exam was over. The giant machine seemed to sag as it powered down behind the two injured hero aspirants, causing them to simultaneously release sighs of relief. They both sank to the ground leaning against a building as the adrenaline started to wear off and they realised how much their injuries hurt.

"You know, you're really warm," the girl noted as they continued to lean against each other.

As he noticed their close proximity now that the dangerous scenario had passed, Izuku's face flushed tomato red. "Ah, y-yeah, it's part of my quirk, I guess!" he fibbed.

"It's kinda nice."

Thankfully, the school nurse Recovery Girl came along pretty quickly and fixed them both up with little trouble. They felt exhausted but that was a fair bit better than constant pain. Ochako found herself having trouble standing and Izuku, noticing the cause and trying not to think about what it meant right then, pulled himself away with a little more force.

"Thanks for the save!" the girl said as she waved goodbye. "Hope to see you at school!"

Izuku couldn't wipe the grin off his face if he tried. He did well in the exam, sure but the most important part– "I got touched by a girl!"

Recovery Girl, still nearby tried to hold in her laughter. "I'm flattered sonny but I think you're a little young for me!"

-(-)-

All of the waiting was keeping Izuku Midoriya on tenterhooks. All Might hadn't contacted him since the exam. Was that good? Bad? He had no idea. He thought he had done okay for himself. He probably wasn't going to be at the top of the ranking or anything (he had to admit Kacchan probably would, stupid jerk being good at things). But he thought he had a good shot at getting in based on his performance.

And then the results came. In a letter with an honest to gods wax seal of the school's emblem. The moment of truth, he realised as he stared at the letter on his desk. Nervous fingers fumbled with the envelope until he lost patience and tore along the side letting the contents fall out.

A... mini-projector?

" **I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION NOW!"** boomed All Might wearing an honestly pretty snazzy suit as he stood on what looked like a game show set. **"I know it's been a while but with great power comes an even** _ **greater**_ **amount of paperwork! The truth is I didn't just come to this city to fight villains, I came to this city as the newest UA faculty member!"**

" **Whaddya mean wrap it up?"** All Might asked as a hand appeared in the corner of the projection making gestures. **"I have to do** _ **how many**_ **of these things?! Hahhh. So!"** the greatest hero said as his tiff with the producer seemed to be over. **"Moving on! First things first, you passed the written exam. For the combat portion you earned twenty-seven points. Not a bad showing! But I'm afraid with combat points alone, you did not pass the exam."**

"... What?" Izuku asked as he numbly stumbled backwards, his chair catching him. He felt tears well up as he realised, "After everything I did... All that hard work and everything you did for me... I failed?"

" **However..."** All Might continued. **"Fighting villains is not all there is to being a hero! Heroes are there for the people! To lend a helping hand when they need it most! That's why we have** _ **rescue points!**_ **Points awarded for heroic acts of defending and supporting others! A panel of judges watch the exam and award points based on the examinee's performance! So for you, Izuku Midoriya! Thirty-eight rescue points! For multiple examples of going out of your way to protect others, even putting yourself in danger and causing yourself injury to do it! Good show, young man!"**

The view on the projection changed to a scoreboard, showing the top ten applicants and their points breakdown. He had scored twenty-seven in combat and thirty-eight in rescue for a total of sixty-five points, putting him in- "Fourth place?!" Izuku yelled incredulously. Sure, Bakugou placed at the top but Izuku was only three places behind him, tied with someone named Itsuka Kendo. "Fourth place..." he repeated, having never dreamed he would do so well.

" **Congratulations, Izuku Midoriya. UA is your hero academia!"**

The tears that had threatened to fall before flowed freely as he realised all of his work had paid off and he would be going to the school of his dreams, to pursue the career that only a single year ago was barely even a fantasy. "Thank you, All Might."

-(-)-

What came next was a rush of activity as Izuku got ready for the new school year. He had managed to meet with All Might again face to face, the hero assuring Izuku that he didn't throw his weight around and wasn't on the panel of judges, that Izuku got in all on his own. As if Izuku ever thought otherwise, All Might would never stoop to doing such shady things! He was All Might!

Then there was the confrontation with Bakugou, giving him grief for getting into UA when the bomber thought he should be the only one to get in. Kacchan could say whatever he wanted, though. Izuku's results spoke for themselves and he was proud of his accomplishment.

But there was one minor or not so minor wrinkle with getting accepted into UA. He had to update his quirk registration form. All Might told him it wouldn't be a problem and people had to do it all the time but they had to work out together what the new version should say. Attracting high temperature objects wasn't really accurate or complete anymore but also they had to include how to explain away the physical power of One for All.

In the end. This was what they came up with.

Quirk: Heat-Sink

Description: Allows for thermokinesis only in the direction of the user to absorb heat and turn it into physical power.

They honestly could have worded it better but it was an awkward power to describe. The registration office didn't seem to mind, having probably seen worse. With the registration done, he sent off his costume design submission and started counting the days.

In less than two weeks, he would be a real hero in training.

-(-)-

A/N: Alright! I wrote this a couple weeks ago while working towards my NaNoWriMo goal (which I completed, hooray!). It's probably going to be pretty indulgent. Basically the premise came from a meme about what Deku's actual quirk would be and that it would "attract hot things"... and then pictures of Ochako and Mei.

… Yeah. It's probably going to be _that_ kind of story. Though naturally I'll endeavour to make it a real story on top of that.

And yes, I'm going with the interpretation that OFA enhances natural quirks too because it has yet to be confirmed whether it does that or not. So the very first time Izuku uses his own quirk and activates OFA it sends his quirk into overdrive and basically puts it at endgame levels. It's as strong as his quirk could ever get which for that quirk... Isn't very strong at all. But supplemented by even minimal physical boosts it makes him a contender.

And to be clear, this isn't going to be an OP Izuku either. He has weaknesses that you might have cottoned on to in this chapter. And he has one specific limitation that canon Deku _didn't_ have that will come up in chapter 3.

If you would like to support me directly, there is now a way you can do so through popular donation platform that I'm not allowed to say the name of on this site. You know the one. Please consider helping out. As long as I'm receiving even a single dollar from someone who thinks my writing is worthwhile, I guarantee at least a chapter of something a week.

Thanks for reading.


	2. Quirk Assessment! Battle Training!

A/N: I've stopped skipping scenes similar to canon in this chapter. There are minor changes that will grow in importance.

-(-)-

It was finally the day. His first day at UA, first day of high school, first day of hero training.

And he was already lost.

In fairness to Izuku, the UA campus was not small by any means. Two towers of glass, connected at the ground floor and a bridge-like section several stories up made up the main school building. And that was just the main building, ignoring the many myriad facilities they had surrounding it, from gymnasiums to the testing grounds they had used for the entrance exam. There were so many facilities, finding the right _signpost_ was a challenge in itself. Eventually he managed to find his classroom, 1A. The door was giant, like many others on the campus. Accommodating those with the height to make it necessary.

Sliding open the door, his heart sank. Both of the people he least wanted to be in a class with.

"You're already disrespecting this academy by scuffing school property you cretin!"

"You're kidding me, right? Your old school put that stick up your ass or were you born with it?"

Of course! Things were already going so well for him, the other shoe had to drop some time. Why not give him another three years of being in Kacchan's class along with glasses guy who thought he was a nuisance? His good karma had paid out in spades and now things were settling back into normality.

"It's him," the boy with glasses said with unexpected weight and reverence. Even more so when Izuku realised it was said about _him_. "My name is Tenya Iida from the Somei Private Academy!" the boy with glasses, Iida, announced as he power-walked over.

"Hi?", Izuku said, the world coming out as a question and a song all at once. "I'm Izuku Midoriya. It's super nice to meet you."

The already tall Iida seemed all the taller with his straight and rigid posture. "Midoriya. You figured out there was more to the practical exam, didn't you?"

"You mean the rescue points thing?" Izuku asked. "No, I could help so I helped. I wasn't really thinking about it at all, ahaha..." he laughed nervously, rubbing at the back of his neck.

"Really?" Iida asked in mild surprise. "Would you even have passed with so few combat points?"

Izuku began to wonder how closely Iida must have studied that scoreboard. "Ah... Well, I guess at the time it–"

"Hey, I recognise that messy hair!"

"Ah, it's you!" said Izuku as he turned around at hearing the voice to find the girl from the entrance exam.

"Oh my gosh, this is great! We both made it! And we're even in the same class! I wonder what we'll be doing today besides orientation! I wonder what our teachers are like, I can't wait to meet everybody!"

"If you're just here to make friends, then you can leave."

And that was how Izuku and the rest of class 1A met their homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Lying in the hallway in a sleeping bag, drinking from a juice box. And despite the childishness of that appearance, looked utterly fed up with life and everything it had to offer.

With no prior notice, the entire class were told to put on gym clothes and head outside to the sports fields. Once gathered there, Aizawa informed them they would be skipping orientation for quirk assessment tests. When asked why, his response amounted to "I can do whatever I feel is best for the betterment of my class."

Bakugou was called up first to demonstrate what Aizawa meant by "quirk assessment test". It was the standard series of tests for physical education but they were allowed to use their quirks in whatever way they wanted. Bakugou powered a softball throw with an explosion, smashing his middle school record by more than an order of magnitude.

The class' excitement at having such freedom to use their quirks was short-lived when Aizawa informed them the person scoring the lowest would be kicked out. That seemed... _extreme_ to Izuku, but it wasn't untrue that UA was so successful they were basically given carte blanche to run the school how they liked. If Aizawa said he could do it, he could probably do it.

And so the testing began. The fifty meter dash. The best run was Iida whose engine quirk netted him a time of 3.04 seconds. The worst run came from the diminutive form of Minoru Mineta who had a novel idea of using the balls that were part of his quirk as bounce pads. Unfortunately he messed up his timing and tripped on one, coming to a tumbling stop before the finish line and scampering over it for and eight and a half second finish. Izuku was around the middle of the pack with 5.66 seconds.

Next was grip strength. Mezo Shoji came out on top by utilising his ability to make multiple hands, nearly breaking the machine under all the pressure. Worst was Koji Koda who could apparently talk to animals but didn't really have a way to utilise that in the test. Izuku was again around the middle of the pack. In the realms of superhuman but there were those who did far better.

Bakugou had been watching Midoriya's attempts and was deeply suspicious of the weakling's new ability. That wasn't part of his quirk before. What was he hiding? Or had the weakling been sandbagging their whole lives?

The third test was the standing long-jump. Bakugou dominated in this one as whenever he lost velocity he would use another explosion to propel himself. Eventually his stamina gave out but he blew every other score out of the water. Last place was once again Minoru Mineta who had a novel idea. Creating a chain out of his sticky balls he confidently said "Check this out, ladies!" Then whipped the chain forwards, catching the end of the sand pit. As he tried to use it to swing his way forward he fumbled his launch, falling sideways off the platform and getting a score of four inches. Izuku, feeling unsatisfied with his progress so far decided to push himself a little in this test and went a little beyond his usual limits. In a single bound he launched himself well over the sand pit and quite a way onto the field beyond. His legs ached slightly but he felt fine otherwise.

The repeated sidesteps was something of a wash, though it was the one test Minoru Mineta managed to ace. Using his balls, he bounced himself side to side at a rapid pace. A few others used similar novel tricks with their quirks to get good scores but most ended up very similar to their middle school scores, Izuku included.

For the softball throw, Izuku was surprised to see Bakugou's dominating opening throw get beaten rather quickly. Twice. Momo Yaoyorozu pulled a cannon out of herself, loaded the softball and fired, doubling Bakugou's score. And Ochako... Broke the scale. The ball went up and did not come back down, giving her a score of infinity. At the back of the pack was Tooru Hagakure whose invisibility helped her not at all, leaving her with a below average score for the _standard_ tests. Once again, Izuku pushed the boat out on his throw, getting a score well above the average.

Next was the distance run. This sort of test, much like the fifty meter sprint, was Tenya Iida's bread and butter. However, because the run was longer he was able to get to a much higher speed and finished well before anyone else was even close. Trailing behind, doomed by his small stature and overuse of his quirk, Minoru Mineta once again failed to perform. Izuku didn't push himself hard for this test, it being a test of stamina. He stayed at his limit of two percent in great bounding strides. Another above average score.

The seated toe touch. A test of their flexibility. And another test where a vast majority of the class were in the same boat, not having a good way to leverage their quirk. Though Sato managed the worst due to his particularly muscular physique causing him problems. Shoji was once again one who could perform particularly well at this due the very lenient understanding of where his hands were.

And at last came the sit ups. The final test. Once again, not many quirks could benefit someone in doing sit ups since they were very firmly defined. As such, it became more or less an ordinary test with little to no superpowers. Izuku and Sato found themselves duking it out for the top spot, while Ochako and Aoyama were both struggling. Ochako because her level of fitness wasn't the best it could be and Aoyama because his belt kept getting in the way. He couldn't remove it so he was sadly left with it obstructing his movements.

"Alright, time to give you your results," Aizawa said to the re-gathered class of varyingly winded and exhausted students. "These are your ranks from best to worst. You'll probably have an idea of your standing already."

Izuku watched curiously as the rankings appeared on a projected screen. The first thing he noticed wasn't his own place, but Bakugou's. Not only was he not in first place, he was in _third_. UA really was on an entirely different level. As his eyes scanned down the list he found his own name near the bottom but on the left column, placing him in ninth. That felt about right. He hadn't really bombed any of the tests but he'd only stood out in one. And then right at the bottom of the rankings was one Minoru Mineta, the diminutive student with purple balls for hair, the boy himself letting out a strangled noise as his eyes laser-focused on his own name.

Aizawa shut off the projector. "Also I lied, no one's going home." His face morphed into an entirely punchable grin, as though he was enjoying their anguish far too much. "That was just a rational deception to make sure you gave it your all!"

The entire class (save for Yaoyorozu, who had seen through it) let out a collective sigh of relief, Mineta dropping to his knees and clasping his hands as he cried out his thanks to some unseen force.

"That's all. Pick up a syllabus in the classroom and go home," Aizawa instructed, back to seeming bored. "Mineta, come with me."

The confused grapehead obediently followed after his teacher, thoughts swirling a bit at being singled out. Was it a double-bluff? Was he really being expelled?!

As the two rounded a corner behind the gymnasium, Aizawa stopped and turned to look down at the boy, now one of his students. "You took a tumble a few times during the tests. Do you need to see Recovery Girl?"

"No sir. I'm fine." Internally, Mineta breathed a sigh of relief. So that was all it was.

"Mineta, you ranked last in the tests."

And all of a sudden he was back to being worried. "But you said–"

"You're not being kicked out," Aizawa said to cut off the boy's wrong train of thought. "But you're in last place. I want you to think about what that means. You not only got the lowest combined score on the tests, you did significantly worse than Hagakure. Her quirk is invisibility and gives her next to no physical enhancement or ability. Yet somehow you, with a quirk that let you place first in one of the challenges unopposed, managed to not even _compete_ with her overall. What does that say?"

The teacher put his hand up as the boy opened his mouth. "Don't answer. I'll tell you what it says. It says you need to think long and hard about your place in this school. What your purpose here is. What you need to do to achieve it. Because at this rate, you'll learn first hand that students from different departments can switch places. There are plenty of students in General Studies that didn't make the cut for the Hero course. They would be eager to take your place.

Step up your game. Go beyond. Or you'll just get left behind."

Having changed back into their uniforms, the students of Class 1A (really, all of the students at UA) were heading home.

"Midoriya!" Iida shouted as he hustled to catch up to the green-haired boy.

"Oh, Iida, hey!" Izuku answered as he slowed to let the taller boy catch up. "I didn't check, how did you do on the test?"

"Oh, quite well! I was near the top, though I must admit to being disappointed in myself that that ruffian outperformed me," the serious boy said with a wild sweeping gesture.

Izuku nodded understandingly. "Yeah, that's Kacchan, alright."

"You know him?"

"We grew up together. He's got a lot of attitude but anyone who saw him perform knew he was going places."

"I may not like it, but I have to agree there."

"Hey guys!" Ochako shouted as she chased the boys down. "Are you going to the train station! Let's walk together!"

"Oh, you're the infinity girl!" Iida said with mild surprise.

"Ochako Uraraka!" she said with an open smile. "Let's see, you're Tenya Iida and you're... Midoriya? Was that it?"

"Yeah! I'm Izuku Midoriya!" Izuku answered a little too excited to be talking to a girl who remembered his name.

"So what do you guys think of Mr. Aizawa?" asked Ochako, her hands clasped behind her back as the group started their walk to the train station.

"He claimed he wanted to push us to excel but the means he used make me uneasy," Iida mused, arms folded, "It was effective but the deception just doesn't seem very heroic."

"Well he wasn't being a hero then, right? He was being a teacher!" Ochako countered.

"I just wish I knew who he was," Izuku voiced. "I mean he works here, he _has_ to be a hero, right? Did either of you recognise him?"

Shaking heads was all the response he got.

-(-)-

The next day's lessons were much more standard for a high school covering the standard curriculum, English and Mathematics being the morning classes. The only part that made them special was the teachers. Present Mic providing lessons in English while Snipe taught Mathematics. Following that was the lunch period with school lunches provided by the cooking hero, Lunch Rush.

And then came the afternoon classes. The entire afternoon was only a single class: Hero Basic Training.

" **I AM HERE!"**

The voice unmistakable to any hero fan, the power of it, the weight behind those words carried even through the school walls. The entire class waited in gleeful anticipation.

" **Coming through the door like a hero!"** the inimitable form of All Mightt bellowed as he thrust himself chest first through the doorway.

"Oh wow, it really is him!" one student said.

"He really is a teacher! This year is gonna be awesome!" said another.

"Is that his silver age costume?"

Izuku's head almost twisted off it turned so fast on hearing the frog-like girl say that. Recognising All Might's silver age costume at a glance?! That was amazing!

" **Welcome to the most important class at UA! This is where you will learn the basics of being a pro! And what it means to fight in the name of good! Today's lesson..."** he paused for dramatic effect, curling in on himself before thrusting his out his hand. **"Will pull no punches!"** In his hand was a card with the word BATTLE stylistically emblazoned on it in red letters.

"Fight training!" Bakugou growled with an eager grin.

" **But one of the keys of being a hero is... Looking good!"** All Might continued as he pointed at numbered containers being ejected from the classroom wall. **"These costumes were designed based on your quirk registration forms and the requests you sent in before school started!"**

The class were cheering openly at this point, so swept up in All Might's momentum and the excitement of the moment.

" **Get yourselves suited up! Then meet me at Training Ground Beta!"**

"Yes sir!"

-(-)-

" **They say the clothes make the pros, ladies and gentlemen! And behold! You! Are the proof!"**

Izuku certainly couldn't argue that as he emerged from the tunnel behind his classmates. Everyone looked incredible, like they were already heroes! They all looked the part so much, even he himself started to feel like he really was one along with them.

Whether it was a simple design like the gi worn by the boy with a tail or the boy in a simple red and yellow shirt and shorts combo, or the more elaborate affairs like Bakugou's explosive-reminiscent headpiece with giant grenade bracers or Iida's... Well, the end result was he looked like a cross between a knight and a _car_. Everyone had some kind of aesthetic that made them stand out from the crowd in a way that said "hero".

And then... There were the girls' costumes. Skin-tight bodysuits _everywhere_. Uraraka was wearing one. Frog girl was wearing one. Acid girl was wearing one with _cleavage_. That one punk-looking girl was the only one who that wasn't particularly revealing which was kind of nice to him. Someone he could talk to in costume without becoming a babbling mess. Momo Yaoyorozu was wearing what was basically a swimsuit with a plunging neckline for gods' sake!

… Weren't there more girls in the class?

Oh, he realised. The last one was the invisible girl standing next to tail guy. Her costume was just gloves and shoes.

 _Her costume was just gloves and shoes._ Izuku's brain may as well have liquefied when that realisation struck.

"Hey, Izuku! Is that your costume?" said Ochako as she saw him approaching.

Izuku's own costume was, if he was being honest, suspiciously similar to All Might's current costume. He knew he was letting a little of his inner fanboy seep through but he thought people wouldn't notice if he based his costume off of All Might's old one. How was he supposed to know All Might would wear it for this lesson!

Deku's costume consisted of a sleeved and legged unitard and boots much like All Might's but with the addition of gloves and a mask. Izuku copied the design on All Might's chest and arms, though with a raised black circle in the centre of his chest. The helmet was supposed to have protrusions coming out from just above the forehead pointing straight up. It had them, but they didn't come out quite like Izuku had hoped, looking more like demonic horns than... their inspiration. The lower jaw was reminiscent of a certain hero's smile but again ended up looking a little more like a menacing grin than the student hoped. Above that was an air filtration system since Izuku expected to be dealing with a lot of smoke with his quirk involving heat. The colour scheme of the costume was mostly charcoal-grey with the suit pattern, boots and mask in a vibrant, glowing red.

"Wow, Izuku, you look amazing! You look like a cross between All Might and Endeavour!" Ochako gushed as she looked him up and down before her eyes unexpectedly locked on his _very_ exposed abdominals in his _also_ skin tight suit.

Neither of them were quite aware of how closely they were inspecting each other's bodies as they both stammered out "Y-you look great!" at the same time.

Neither did they notice any of the rest of the class's reactions as they glanced behind themselves to see.

"Wow, he's in way better shape than I thought he'd be," were the paraphrased thoughts of Ojiro, Kirishima and Sato.

"Quite the unexpectedly sinister appearance," thought Iida and Tokoyami, with displeasure and approval, respectively.

"Huh, maybe I was too hard on the rest of the girls costumes being skin-tight," thought an unexpectedly considering Jirou.

Todoroki's thoughts contained no small amount of misplaced anger on someone seemingly wanting to emulate Endeavour's look.

Tsuyu on the other hand more noticed the similarity to All Might's current costume, putting a considering finger to her chin.

All Might managed to stifle his laughter over Izuku's choice of costume design and bring himself back to the lesson. **"So, now that you're ready it's time to begin combat training!"**

"Sir!" Iida interrupted immediately, "This is the model city from the entrance exam! Will we be participating in urban battles again?"

" **Not quite! We're going to be kicking your training up a notch!"** the pro responded, taking the interruption before he could even get going in stride. **"Villain fights you see on the news happen outside but statistically most of them will occur indoors! Backroom deals! Home invasions! Secret underground lairs! Intelligent villains stay hidden in the shadows! This exercise will have you paired up and set against each other as good guys against bad guys in two-on-two indoor battles!"**

"Doesn't this seem kind of advanced?" Tsuyu asked.

"Will you be deciding who wins?" Momo asked.

"How much can we hurt the other team?" Bakugou asked.

"Do we need to worry about the losers getting expelled like earlier?" Ochako asked.

"Will you be splitting us up based on chance or comparative skill?" Iida asked.

"Isn't this cape trés chic?" Aoyama asked.

"I wasn't finished talking!" said All Might, finally buckling after a flood of questions and resorting to pulling out his notes. **"Listen up! The villains have hidden a nuclear missile somewhere in their hideout, a five story building! The heroes must foil their plans by either capturing the villains** _ **or**_ **recovering the weapon! Likewise, the villains must capture the heroes or protect the weapon! We'll choose teams by drawing lots!"**

"Isn't there a better way than something so arbitrary?" Iida asked.

"No that makes sense!" Izuku answered for him. "A lot of heroes end up having to team up with people they've never worked with before. You can't always choose who's available when a villain attacks."

"Ah, I see. Excuse my rudeness!" Iida said formally, bowing at the middle to his teacher.

" **No sweat! Let's draw!"**

As if ordained by fate, Izuku ended up teamed with and facing against all of the people he knew the names of in his class so far. Ochako as his teammate on the hero team, Iida and Bakugou as the villain team.

From the moment the first battle was revealed, Bakugou had been glaring at Izuku with menace. Izuku in turn looked at him but with annoyance. Was the blond still stewing over not being the only one to get into UA?

" **Villain team, head inside and get set up! In five minutes the hero team will bust in! Prepare yourselves appropriately! Remember, you are the villains so embody villainy! If things go too far, I'll step in. Understood?"**

"Yes sir!" Iida said with firmness while Bakugou echoed it in a mutter.

As the hero team waited for the time limit to be up, Ochako studied the floor plan of the building. "So do they expect us to memorise this whole thing? It's pretty huge. But you know, All Might's just as cool as he is in person, right?! And he didn't threaten to punish us like Mister Aizawa so we can relax!"

"Yeah... Relax," Izuku echoed distractedly.

"Are you alright? Is this about how that grenade guy keeps glaring at you?" asked the gravity canceller.

"You noticed that too?" Izuku said with a frown hidden behind his ever-smiling mask. "Kacchan and I grew up together. He always used to give people a hard time over not being as good as he was but for some reason he really had it out for me since we were little." He clenched his fist, the metal plates of his gloves letting off a ting sound as they impacted one another. "But still! I earned my place here the same as he did! I won't let him push me around anymore! And I'm gonna prove it by winning today!"

"So it's a fated battle between rivals?" Ochako said with an anticipatory smile.

"Ah! W-well, I don't know if I'd go quite that far..."

"Aww come on, bring back that spirit! Let's win this!" the girl cheered.

" **Alright! Let's begin the indoor combat training!"** All might said over loudspeakers. " **Team A! Team D! Your time starts now!"**

"Okay, let's go in quiet, okay Uraraka?" Izuku said, nerves getting to him as the moment of action came upon him.

The two of them snuck in through a window on the first floor with no issues The interior of the building didn't seem to bother with the façade of being a real building. Instead it was a labyrinth of identical corridors made up of what looked like identical blocks. Feeling at the walls, Izuku amended that description. Not blocks. Just made to look like them. The walls were solid concrete.

With caution, the two made their way through the floor looking for any thing useful while trying to keep themselves unnoticed. The stairs would be good and they found and ascended one set, catching one of the villains unaware would also be good though likely to reveal their position, finding the weapon would be _great_ as it would mean the most time consuming part of their job was done.

Unfortunately, they found none of those things before Bakugou caught _them_ unawares, swinging around a corner and attempting to blow Izuku's head off with an explosion.

In response, Izuku flung himself to the side into Uraraka, knocking both of them to the ground. "Uraraka, are you okay?!"

"I'm fine!" she answered firmly as the two of them turned and got into a ready position.

"What's the matter, Deku?" Bakugou growled as the smoke cleared. "Not gonna stand up and fight me?"

"I should've known you'd just come at me like this but I didn't think your grudge would run that deep!" Izuku rose from his kneel and stood watching his childhood... _acquaintance_ for any tells.

"Looks like you think you're hot shit with that costume now! Well let's see how you do against a real fighter!" Bakugou shouted as he charged at the usually meeker boy. As he raised his right hand for a first strike he was surprised when Izuku took that arm, spinning himself around and in a move that was around thirty percent technique but mostly strength, used the momentum of the movement to flip the explosive quirk user onto his back, slamming him into the concrete floor.

"Guh!" Bakugou gasped as his back hit the ground. To his credit, he didn't leave himself vulnerable and rolled away and flipped himself back to his feet. "How! You're nowhere _near_ that good a fighter!"

"You kept telling me that so much I ended up believing it, Kacchan!" Izuku shouted back. "That my quirk was garbage, that my fighting was garbage, that everything I did was worthless! Well guess what! I believed it so hard I studied everything I could! Every hero, every technique, every quirk, every fighting style so I could be better! That _includes_ yours! And you know what else?! I got here just like you did! So you can say whatever crap you want but I'll still be a hero!"

"Uraraka!" he said, looking at his teammate, "Go find the stairs! Find the weapon! I'll keep him here!"

"Right!" Ochako answered with a nod before ducking into another hallway.

"You think I'll let you?!" Bakugou roared as he moved to chase down the escaping girl but "Woah, what the-!" found himself suddenly off balance, his body not moving the way he wanted to. Instead it was moving towards- " _Deku!_ "

"You're pretty _hot-blooded_ , aren't you, Kacchan?" Izuku asked tauntingly as he pulled the explosive user with his own quirk. Bakugou brought his arm around to slap an explosion onto the other boy's face but it was caught on Izuku's arm to no effect. "When I was submitting my costume design, I figured I'd be around a lot of heat and explosions 'cos of my quirk!" he explained as he continued to fend of blows with simple blocks. "It's just lucky for me that you're such a bad match against me, Kacchan!"

"Ghhh!" Bakugou grunted, using an overly large explosion to push the other boy away. "You got some neat tricks now, Deku! But if you wanna compare costumes how's this! You know my quirk is to secrete explosive fluid in my sweat! These grenades collect it, ready for a single enormous blast!"

" **Stop, young Bakugou! That level of force is too much!"** came a voice into all the participant earpieces.

"He'll be fine with his fancy suit!" Bakugou growled. "Besides, all he has to do is dodge!"

As Bakugou pulled the pin in his grenade gauntlet, Izuku realised that, yeah, that was a really good point. So using the super strength component of One for All he kicked off the floor to send him skidding into another hallway and out of the way of the explosion.

The pressure wave of the explosion was enormous, tearing a rent through the halls of the building and ripping a hole in the outer wall. Seeing Izuku no longer there, Bakugou wondered if he had blown the boy out of the window and rushed over to check. "Where is he?" he asked aloud, looking out onto the pavement.

" **Young Bakugou if you use another explosion like that your team will be disqualified!"**

"What the hell?!"

" **Your job is to protect the weapon! Destroying your own hideout would be a foolish move!"**

"Rrrrgh!"

Behind him, for a moment, Izuku thought maybe he could just knock Bakugou out of the building considering the bomber would survive easily. But that wasn't a valid way to win and Bakugou would just climb back up even _angrier_. Instead, he slipped back into the hallways and contacted Ochako. "Uraraka, did you find it?"

"Yeah, fifth floor but... Iida caught me, sorry!" she responded. "But now he's monologuing! He's really into this villain deal!"

Izuku winced. Super speed against anti-gravity was a bad matchup for their side. "Alright. I'll try to take care of Kacchan, then come support!"

"Roger!"

Bakugou was no longer watching the opening in the wall. Instead he was back to scouting the hallways.

But this time Izuku had the drop on _him_.

In one hand, Izuku readied his capture tape. With the other, he pointed at his old rival. With a gesture and an exclamation of "What the-! Dammit Deku!" from the bomber, the blond was sailing towards his green-haired opponent. Swinging his right arm around to turn the tables on Izuku, he wasn't prepared for Izuku to have gone low and found his leg neatly snagged by the capture tape. Not knowing how far they needed to go to capture the enemy for the exercise, Izuku pulled back his other arm for a punch-

" **Katsuki Bakugou of the villain team captured! Five minutes remaining!"**

Izuku looked from his old rival to the stairs revealed in the big blast. "Later, Kacchan," was all he said as he ran to ascend to the top floor.

Katsuki Bakugou was left to stew in his shock that he had been so thoroughly and humiliatingly beaten.

Much as Izuku wanted to just discard thoughts of the previous fight, it wasn't such an easy thing. As he ran around trying to find the stairs up twice over he couldn't suppress the elation that he had finally proven himself worthy, even if Kacchan probably wouldn't see it that way.

Matter of fact, he was probably _pissed_.

… Thoughts for later, he decided! As he ascended to the top floor and heard the roar of Iida's engines he refocused on the new, the final battle about to take place! The inner sanctum was easy to find with all the noise. Iida had clearly planned for Uraraka's quirk. The room was completely bare aside from the two combatants already there and the weapon, which Iida was holding in the air.

"Damn! Here already!" Iida snarled in an exaggeratedly evil voice. "That simpleton Bakugou fell to you easily but you will not foil my evil plans so... uh... easily! Prepare to meet your doom, heroes! Muahahahaha!"

"Wow, he really _did_ get into the villain thing, didn't he?" Izuku asked, holding his neck in sympathetic embarrassment.

"Any ideas, Izuku?" Ochako asked, having reached her limit for options.

"Uhh... Maybe?" The real answer was no. He didn't have anything. He didn't bring anything to the equation that Uraraka didn't already have. He was faster than she was but not in the same league as Iida.

" **One minute remaining!"**

"Zhaa-ah!" Izuku yelped. "Okay, try to get the weapon between us!" he said quietly enough only Ochako heard him.

"Got it!"

With a kick off the ground, Izuku chased across the room directly at Iida. Unsurprised by the move, Iida was already moving. "Muahaha! I saw all your tricks in the entrance exam, _hero_! Youuu mayyy beee fast! But you're nothing compared to the villain... Uhh..." Iida stalled, "... Evilgenium!"

Ochako couldn't hold back her laughter anymore and was openly giggling as the exercise became a glorified game of two-on-one tag. With two people, even if it was much easier to corner the speedster he was still too fast to catch. And as All Might shouted **"Thirty seconds left!"** Izuku chanted in his head over and over "Uraraka is hot, Uraraka is hot, Uraraka is hot!" He made a pulling gesture as Iida and the weapon cut Ochako out of his eye-line.

"GONG"

"Oh, crap, Uraraka, are you okay?!" Izuku asked as he ran around the side of the weapon.

On the other side he saw the girl with her arms circled around the base of the weapon. "I got it!" she said with a giddy smile. Izuku felt he _may_ have pulled her a little too hard and slammed her head into the weapon. Oops.

"Noooooooooo! My evil plans have been foiled!" Iida cried overdramatically as he fell to his knees in despair.

" **The hero team wiiiiiiiiins!"**

-(-)-

A/N: Was supposed to be a Skyrim chapter today but it fought me. So have more MHA instead!

So... 149 follows in one chapter. Top 10% of stories with just that. Hot damn. That's only making me want to do this one right, even if it is super indulgent.

What else... Right. Mineta. He's... He's gonna have a hard time here. In canon, Izuku was always there to either perform worse or be a massive distraction from how bad Mineta was doing. And not just in the quirk tests. He's on a rough road.

That's pretty much it for author comments though. The rest seems to speak for itself.

If you would like to support me directly, there is now a way you can do so through popular donation platform that I'm not allowed to say the name of on this site. You know the one. Please consider helping out. As long as I'm receiving even a single dollar from someone who thinks my writing is worthwhile, I guarantee at least a chapter of something a week.

Thanks for reading.


	3. Unforeseen

" **Alright, boys and girls! Let's get the debrief for match one underway!"** All Might said in his trademark boisterous manner. **"Now, if I were to single out the best performance of the match I would have to say it was young Midoriya, with Iida coming in a close second!"**

"Wait, seriously?" Kirishima asked. "How was it close?! Midoriya kicked ass and beat everybody!"

" **Hmm! Valid question! Who has a guess?!"**

"Sir, I believe I can answer that," Momo Yaoyarozu, the girl with the diligent manner clashing with her incredibly revealing costume volunteered, raising her arm. "Iida was the most dedicated to the exercise, adapting to his assigned role. Bakugou's actions were reckless, abandoning the goal to pursue personal vendettas and causing unnecessary destruction. Not only was his powered explosion counter to his goals, it was both completely ineffective and caused him to lose sight of his opponent, setting himself up for a fall. Uraraka was ill-equipped to deal with either of her opponents and despite technically securing the victory, it was not through her own actions. While Midoriya defeated one opponent and assisted in securing the victory, Bakugou's rage made him sloppy and Iida was outnumbered. Given the severe handicap, Iida almost earning a victory via time limit speaks favourably of his abilities. Though, I note, Iida was capable of securing that victory. Had he chosen to retreat to the lower floors, the hero team would have been unable to catch him." Momo finished, not noticing the deliriously happy expression on Iida's face at her analysis, before it turned thoughtful at her critique.

"Nice job, Evilgenium," said Ochako, bursting his bubble and causing him to clear his throat awkwardly and try to stand with dignity and poise.

No one that just heard his "villain name" was buying it.

" **Well... Yes, that's... Mostly right. Iida could have relaxed more also but... Yes! Good job! Good analysis!"** All Might praised with a thumbs up and an awkward laugh at basically being upstaged. **"Now then! Let's move on to the next match! Remember everything you saw and what we discussed as you tackle this training for yourselves! The next match will be!..."** the number one hero announced as he rummaged around in the team lot boxes.

The next teams to go were Teams B and I, Todoroki and Shoji for the heroes, Hagakure and Ojiro for the villains. As the four selected headed to their battle location, the rest of the class seemed to gravitate towards the previous match participants.

More specifically...

"Oh, man that was such a great fight you guys had!" Kirishima praised Bakugou and Izuku, miming punches. "Bakugou was like _bam bam bam_ and Midoriya was like _huh huh huh_!" he said, turtling up like a boxer while swaying around. "You guys had a real double act thing going!"

"Screw off, spiky guy!" Bakugou barked as he pushed his way out of the crowd and sulked by himself.

"What's _his_ problem?" Jirou asked, rolling her eyes at the machismo after getting pushed aside.

"Ah, whatever, dude just lost. Let 'im work it out of his system," Kirishima waved the _other_ spiky-haired boy's temper off. "Anyway, what is _with_ your quirk, dude?!" he asked Izuku instead, "I can't figure it out! Yesterday it just seemed like a regular strength enhancement thing, then today you're yankin' people all over the place! What gives?!"

"I must admit to being curious, myself," Iida agreed. "When you arrived in the inner sanct- err, I mean the room with the weapon, I thought you would just pull it out of my hands and the match would be over."

"Oh, well my quirk doesn't work on everything and it only works in a certain way," Izuku said evasively, not really wanting to explain more and have to lie. On the other hand... It was a _lot_ of people focusing all their attention on him.

"Oh, is he blushing?" the pink girl asked pointing at his cheeks flaring red, flaring _harder_ on her pointing it out. "Oh, that's so cute! What're you hiding, Midoriya?" she teased.

"N-Nothing!" he protested, face cherry red as he waved his arms defensively. "J-J-Just my quirk draws on heat so I can pull things towards me if I think they're hot and I can make myself stronger!"

Huh. He didn't even technically lie there, he realised. Nice save, Midoriya!

Of course, he also didn't realise he let slip more than he probably should have. The permanent blush marks on Uraraka's face seemed to swell and spread across her entire face and down past her neck.

" _Ohhhhh?_ " Ashido drawled with a sinister smile, "So you think Uraraka is _hot_ , huh?"

"Ahhh, I see!" Iida said, slamming a fist into his palm, "The internal temperature of a human is thirty-seven degrees and the internals of those robots was far hotter than that so you could pull them towards you!"

"Ahhh-hah?" Izuku sighed out something that sounded vaguely affirmative so he wouldn't have to lie again.

"But if it worked like that, why wouldn't he have just pulled _you_ , Iida?" Yaoyarozu asked, joining the conversation.

Izuku cringed at the worryingly insightful girl in the distractingly revealing outfit's deduction.

Ashido's grin returned. "Soooo I was right! It worked on Uraraka because he thinks she's super hot!"

Izuku's brain overloaded under all the teasing, reducing him to letting out a pitiful whining sound in response.

"Awww, that's so adorable!" Ashido squealed as she wrapped him in a hug getting a startled squeak from him. "Look, he's like a squeaky toy!"

"Come on, Mina, give the guy a break," said Kirishima, feeling bad he kind of started this. Unfortunately he was ignored.

"Hey, so does that mean it would work on the rest of us?" Tsuyu asked curiously.

Izuku, his ears leaking steam by this point, released a strangled sound as even his subconscious mind understood the reality of such a trap question.

"Oh, I think that's a yes for me at least!" Ashido giggled, if a little uncertainly, at having to really work to separate herself from the green-haired boy.

Snapped back into some semblance of thought at being released by the pink girl, he stuttered, "S-Sorry! I c-can't really turn off the close contact part!"

"It's cool!" Ashido said reassuringly even as she shuffled back a couple paces.

"So what about the other–"

"D-Definitely!" Izuku shouted cutting off Kirishima, chin pressed into his neck, eyes shut tight. "It would definitely work on all the girls!"

It had seemed like the only safe answer to the question.

"I, uh, was gonna ask about the enhancement part," Kirishama explained, rubbing his head awkwardly. Turns out Izuku was answering the wrong question and Kirishima was doing him a solid by changing the subject.

"O-Oh," Izuku swallowed thickly.

"So... Yeah! Good match, guys!" Kirishima cheered before moving back to the monitoring station to watch the next match, most of the class following him.

Two that didn't, Kaminari and Mineta, moved in close and pulled Izuku into a huddle. "So how was the hug?" Kaminari whispered.

"Uhhh, fine?"

"Were her boobs firm?" Mineta asked, salivating slightly.

Midoriya's stress line was once again crossed, but this time he had no compunctions about shoving the two more lecherous boys away with maybe a little more strength than was truly necessary.

" **Alright. Match two! Hero team, your time starts now!"**

Izuku watched the match unfold, pulling his mind away from the past few awkward minutes by doing something he had done for years. Study heroes. And the second match was a doozy, even for how short it was.

Ojiro had a tail. Hagakure was invisible. Shoji could replicate his body parts on his tentacles as many times as needed.

It could have been three on one instead of two on two. Todoroki still would have won with his overwhelming power of "Nope, Ice".

And seeing it happen, Izuku had no idea how any of them could have stood up to "Nope, Ice". It was an overwhelming level of power. Izuku had to assume Todoroki was a recommended student. If he had been in the main exam he would have blown even Bakugou's score out of the water. And then frozen it.

Because ice.

 _All of the ice._

He realised his thought process seemed to have come off of the rails but seeing someone effortlessly freeze an entire building left him a little lost. That was power on the levels of All Might and Endeavour. The cold even spread to the control room they were in, prompting Izuku to switch on the induction heater built into the chest of his suit.

There wasn't much analysis to be had after that bout, so the next one was begun swiftly.

Sero and Kirishima were teamed up as the villains. Tokoyami and Asui as the heroes. The villains decided on a more cautious approach to the mission. Sero covered their base in a maze of tape traps and Kirishima would stand guard. However, Asui and Tokoyami had their own method that rendered the preparation advantage meaningless.

"I see!" Izuku exclaimed as he figured out what the heroes' plan was, seeing Asui leap through the tape traps and past a dazed Sero and knock out one of the lights.

"What is it, Midoriya?" Iida asked.

"They're stealing the home field advantage! Asui can bypass the tape but wouldn't be good in a two-on-one against Sero and Kirishima. But if she takes out the lights they're fighting Tokoyami in the dark!"

"Making it harder to keep track of him and his shadow, let alone Asui who can still manoeuvre through the traps," Iida concluded, nodding along.

In the end, neither hero was particularly fazed by the fortifications. Asui could move through them, Tokoyami's shadow quirk cut through them with its claws. The villains couldn't keep both at bay in low visibility. The match went to the heroes.

The next match was between the villains Momo and Mineta against the heroes Jirou and Kaminari. The preparations for the villain team were lacklustre. Momo created heavy steel barricades to block entrances to the lair. Mineta... did nothing but leer at his partner's costume.

"Doesn't he have a quirk that would be perfect for this?" Shoji asked, confused.

"Yeah, those ball things would be perfect for laying traps in dark hallways," Ashido agreed.

"What a waste," agreed Tsuyu.

When given the go-ahead to enter the building, Jirou took the initiative and used her earphone jacks to listen for vibrations and tell where the villains were. After getting a general location the two made their way upstairs finding the entrances to the target barricaded. However, Jirou had noticed something particular about battle building C. The windows on the outside had an extended sill. With much reluctance from Kaminari, he then shimmied his way around and into the main room of the fifth floor while Jirou kept up the pretence of trying to bust her way through a wall with sound blasts.

"Pretty ballsy," Kirishima praised on seeing it.

"But reckless," Iida added. "If Yaoyarozu and Mineta were real villains they'd just knock him out of the window on seeing him."

Lucky for the hero team, the villains were too focused on what appeared to be the only entrance and Jirou's attempt to make another one. In truth, she was making progress which only made the distraction better (and louder) as Kaminari crept up on the larger threat. Simply putting his hand on her shoulder, he dosed her with enough electricity to put her down for a while. Then put hands on the weapon before the diminutive Mineta could do anything about it.

The final match was Sato and Koda against Ashido and Aoyama. This match almost seemed a foregone conclusion by everyone present once Ashido once again showed the novel utilisation of her acid as high speed movement. Speed and ranged cover against power and limited indoor utility.

The heroes blitzed into the room and claimed the weapon before the villains could even mount a proper defense.

" **And that's a wrap!"** All Might boomed as the class regathered at the entrance of the testing facilities. **"Everyone did super work and we didn't even have any major injuries! Excellent day of training all around!"**

"It's good to hear some encouragement, sir," Tsuyu said with a raised hand, "Mister Aizawa was kind of a buzzkill."

" **I'm happy to bring some positivity to my alma mater! Now, watch how a true hero makes an exit, LIKE HE'S GOT SOMEWHERE TO BE!"**

As the students of Class 1-A watched their teacher dash through the exit tunnel leaving a dust cloud in his wake, they were once again left in awe. "Okay guys, _that_ is a _hero_!" Kaminari gushed.

"Aww, I'll never be able to move that fast," complained Ojiro.

"I guess we should go get changed?" Izuku asked.

A keening whine came from Mina at that suggestion. "But this costume is so cool!" She blinked, before the teasing expression returned to her face as she struck a provocative pose. "Or was it _hot_?"

"Hokay!" Izuku exclaimed, strutting away with stiff movements. "I'm gonna go get changed now!"

"Hey, Midoriya," Tsuyu called after him, "didn't your powers work on Bakugou too?"

His exaggerated swinging limbs stopped in place, his head tilting with such strained movements it was like they could hear it creaking. In a flash he was turned to face them again waving his arms. "No! No! It's not like that! He's just hot–"

"Figures," Ochako muttered disappointedly, kicking her heels at the ground.

"-blooded!" Izuku finished. "Hot blooded! Not in _that_ way like y–... ghrk!... I'm going now, bye~~~~!" he yelled behind him as he finally gave up and ran away.

"Oh, he's gonna be _fun_ ," Ashido chuckled malevolently.

-(-)-

"So all of the classes are taught by heroes! Math was taught by Snipe – he's the one with the gunslinger look? - and then we had English with Present Mic!"

"Oh, I love his radio show!"

"Yeah! And then there was lunch and you won't believe it, _Lunch Rush_ runs the cafeteria!"

"Oh, wow! Super Mealtime is the best cooking show! I've gotten so many recipes and cooking tips from him! I'll bet the food was amazing!"

"I... Was a little starstruck so I didn't manage to eat much... But what I did have was _really_ good! And then we had hero basic training and it was taught by All Might himself!"

"Oh my!"

"Yeah! And he came in like **"I am here!"** and powerwalking and stuff and tells us we're doing battle training on the first day!"

"Oh, that sounds scary!"

"Yeah... I mean Kacchan was really into it because he's Kacchan... But the entrance exam had that kind of thing so it wasn't so bad! Anyway, we got to wear our costumes and everything and had to fight in pairs against each other in a simulated mission!"

And so Izuku breathlessly told his Mom about hero training in breathless, exhaustive detail. All the times he said cool things and did cool things and how cool all the other students were.

But definitely not the parts where he utterly embarrassed himself. Those he somehow felt weren't worthy of mention.

"And then I pulled Uraraka towards me so she could catch the weapon and we won!"

Inko laughed at his enthusiasm but also let out a hint of a confused sigh. "Honestly, I'm glad you found out your quirk wasn't as limited as we thought but I have no idea where that part of it came from."

"Eheheh," Izuku laughed awkwardly, scratching his head, "Just lucky I guess."

"Honey, I'm so proud of you," Inko said with a watery smile, "You never stopped fighting to achieve your dream and you've already accomplished so much!"

Izuku squirmed slightly at the heartfelt words. "Thanks, Mom."

"Now, tell me more about Lunch Rush! What did he serve! Did you get a recipe?"

"Mom!"

-(-)-

The next day of school got some unwelcome interruptions. The media had gotten wind of All Might directly teaching at UA and had descended on the school like ravenous wolves. They began harassing students outside of the gates trying to get them to talk about their experiences. Izuku just waved awkwardly and scampered into the school grounds under the pressure. Ochako gave answers that showed she wasn't really interested in critiquing the hero's performance. Iida actually gave a very good answer in terms of answering the question but with how fast he was ignored it was clear those particular reporters weren't looking for articulate responses, but rather _dirt_.

Bakugou just told them to fuck off.

Thankfully, the campus security systems didn't allow anyone without permission on campus and locked it down as soon as they tried to press their luck. So the reporters were left wanting.

"Alright," Aizawa began as the class settled in. "I looked over the footage for yesterday's combat training. Bakugou, you're talented. Don't sulk like a child just because you lost. Everyone here is here because they're talented too. You're on a level playing field now so expect to lose sometimes."

The bomber grunted in frustration at the reminder but didn't seem to be dismissing the advice.

"Todoroki," the teacher continued. "You've got a lot of power, there's no questioning that. But remember overwhelming force isn't the way to solve all your problems. Don't rely on it."

"Yes sir," the two-colour haired boy answered dutifully.

"Mineta." The name called this time wasn't said in disinterest. It was commanding. "Your role in that exercise was practically made for your quirk. Yet you did _nothing._ _Remember what we talked about._ "

The class pervert... The _creepiest_ class pervert swallowed thickly at the reprimand.

The teacher's tone went back to his bored drawl. "Everyone else I won't go into detail. I don't doubt you all learned some of the things you need to work on in future. And if you did well that's no excuse to take it easy. Heroes that get lazy get retired one way or another. Now, the next thing we'll handle will determine your futures."

Apprehension filled the room.

"You need to decide on your class representative."

The relief that washed over the class at Aizawa simply being melodramatic again lasted only a moment before students began loudly campaigning for the position. Most students shouting how great they would be at it until Iida insisted that the best way to handle it would be to have a proper democratic election for the position. Aizawa gave his consent (by not caring as long as they picked someone quickly) and so votes were handed in and tabulated. Izuku got two votes, Momo got three.

"Thank you all. I will do my best to live up to your expectations," Yaoyorozu said standing in front of the class with Izuku stood awkwardly next to her.

At lunch, Iida was disappointed he didn't get the job as class representative but was supportive of Momo in the position, which only made sense since he had voted for her. He admitted her insight into his performance was impressive and her criticism gave him something to think about. After picking up on some hints, Izuku and Ochako then cajoled the bespectacled teen into talking about his family. He spoke at length about how they were all pro heroes and his brother was the massively successful hero Ingenium.

Obvious in hindsight, given his chosen "villain name".

There was an incident as apparently some of the news media had broken onto the campus grounds, causing an evacuation order to be given and panicking the students. Iida noticed the cause of the chaos and that there was no danger, so he made a spectacle of himself and told everyone to calm down. As the all clear was given, Izuku approached Iida. "Hey, Iida? I don't think you need to worry about whether you're ready to be a leader. And I don't think whether you get a classroom title is any indication either. You're already amazing."

"Well..." Iida said, at a loss for words for once at the heartfelt appraisal. "Thank you, Midoriya. I appreciate that."

-(-)-

Almost a week later, school had continued as normal and Izuku had gotten used to his class representative duties. Much like in any school they were pretty straightforward, even with the added wrinkle of hero training. Speaking of which, the entire day was to be taken up by that class.

"Today's class will focus on Rescue."

With a field trip, no less.

The bus ride to the facility they would be training at was fairly uneventful beyond some good-natured teasing between classmates. It surprised Izuku that the kid he had seen tear everyone apart was on the receiving end for once. It was a good kind of surprise. He hoped maybe somehow not being the best at everything would mellow the other boy out somehow. It was maybe a futile hope, but he could dream.

When they arrived at the facility it was quite a marvel to see. A mish-mash of different disaster environments all packed together into one giant building.

Of course, as usual, the real attention-getter was the one leading the class.

In a puffy white suit and face obscuring helmet, the ensemble giving the impression of a space suit, the Space Hero Thirteen got squeals and cheers of adoration on taking the stage. "Hello everyone! I'd like to welcome you all to this facility that I designed! Here you will find all kinds of disaster environments! A landslide, a windstorm, a fire, et cetera! I call it the Unforeseen Simulation Joint! Or USJ!"

"So where's All Might?" Aizawa asked the other pro as he slouch-walked into the facility. "Doing some interview for the tabloids somewhere?"

"Actually he used up too much strength doing hero work this morning," Thirteen confided, holding up three fingers, only the two teachers and Izuku knowing the significance of the gesture. "He's resting up in the teacher's lounge."

"Just perfect," Aizawa grumbled. "All right, let's get started."

"Excellent! Now before we get started, I just want to say one thing... Or two. Maybe three? Or–"

"We get it," the class interrupted as one.

"I'm sure all of you know about my quirk, Black Hole. It allows me to suck up anything and turn it to dust."

"Of course!" the biggest hero fanboy present exclaimed, Ochako bouncing excitedly next to him. "You've used your power to save hundreds of people in all kinds of dangerous situations!"

"That's true," the space hero agreed, "but it's also true that my power could easily be used to kill." The last word seemed to drain the excitement of the students, stopping them cold. "In this world there are people everywhere with incredible powers that can be used for good or ill. They're stringently regulated. We often overlook how dangerous they can actually be. Please remember if you lose focus or make the wrong move, your powers can be deadly. Because of Mister Aizawa's fitness test, you know the limits of your powers' potential. And in All Might's combat training you learned how dangerous they can be when used against other people. Bring those lessons with you into this class as you learn how to save people's lives. After all, that's what being a hero is about. Ensuring the safety of others."

There was an air of determination surrounding the students as they listened to Thirteen's impassioned speech. But even so, discomfort sat inside one of them.

Izuku couldn't help but remember the very first time he used Heat-Sink in concert with One for All. The surge of power flowing through him unlike anything else, and the end result of almost taking his own head off, covered in burning logs. His power could be used to kill indeed. One wrong move was all it took. He couldn't imagine what would have happened if he used the physical aspect of the power.

And that was the other problem. He would _have_ to imagine it. Because he didn't know. Aside from that one time where he nearly killed himself, he had never once been able to use his full power. Any time it crossed his mind a wave of panic would dismiss it just as quickly. But because of that, Izuku didn't actually know the limits of his powers. He knew what he was capable of when he only dipped a finger into it, a little more than that and he would injure himself. All Might had once warned him that if he wasn't strong enough, One for All would cause his body to rupture just from overloading with power.

Izuku was left to wonder if even now, after all of that training, after all he'd accomplished, if he still wasn't ready to really use the power he was given.

"That's all I had to say. Thank you for listening," Thirteen finished, sketching an elaborate, western style bow and receiving applause for their efforts.

"Great, now that that's over we–" Aizawa began before a thrumming electrical sound passed through the entire facility. Sparks could be seen leaping across the lights in the upper frame of the dome and the fountain in the main plaza at the centre seemed to stutter in its operation. There, down the long staircase from the UA students and faculty, a dark portal yawned into existence. As it grew, its shape seemed to distort and grow before taking on the vague shape of a person, eyes glowing in the darkness of its form.

The portal continued to spread, and from it appeared first a hand, then a face, covered by another disembodied hand.

"Thirteen, protect the students!" Aizawa shouted on seeing the strange man with dozens of hands grasping onto his body.

"What is that thing?" Kirishima asked, recoiling from the display in the plaza.

And as he spoke, more forms emerged. Two more. Five more. They kept coming, these people with unusual features, likely from quirks that had distorted their otherwise human forms.

"Has the training started already?" Kirishima asked.

"Stay back!" Aizawa barked as he saw Izuku was moving forward to get a closer look. He lowered his goggles over his eyes. "This is real. Those are villains!"

" **I see heroes there but All Might is not among them. The schedule that we stole indicated he would be here,"** a deep, warbling voice spoke, most likely coming from the dark figure. **"Perplexing."**

"So you snuck onto campus with the press as a cover!" Aizawa shouted back.

He didn't get a response from the villains. It seemed the time for talking was done as Aizawa pulled at his scarf, the fabric seeming to float of its own will.

"Wait, how did they even get in here? Isn't this a secure facility?" Kirishima asked.

"Yeah! Thirteen, why aren't the alarms going off?" Momo said, adding her own question.

"If the alarms aren't being triggered, one of these villains must have a quirk that's hiding their presence," suggested the usually quiet Todoroki. "Moreover, they attacked this remote facility during a class. They must have some objective if they planned this out so thoroughly but what is it?"

Izuku was taken by surprise by the usually taciturn boy's keen insight. But Aizawa took it in stride. "Thirteen, get the students out and alert the main campus, Kaminari, try using your quirk to contact the school."

"Ah, yes sir!" Kaminari obeyed, putting a hand up to his earpiece to try and get a signal through.

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Izuku spoke up out of worry. "Are you planning to take all of them on by yourself?!"

"That's right," Aizawa answered. "Thirteen, I'll leave them to you." And with that, the Class 1-A homeroom teacher leapt down the staircase into the waiting mass of dozens of villains.

The endlessly grumpy and disinterested teach seemed to have vanished. He was like an entirely different person as he rushed a group of villains that seemed ready to intercept him, their quirks suddenly not functioning before they were constricted in Aizawa's scarf and tossed aside.

"Oh man, he's _Eraserhead_?!" Izuku exclaimed, suddenly realising who his homeroom teacher had been the entire time. And despite what Izuku knew about the hero, despite what his expert fanboy analysis told him about Eraserhead's limitations, the pro was taking on groups of villains at a time and taking them apart.

"This is no time to be analysing!" Izuku turned and saw Iida staring at him as the rest of the class ran on. "We have to go!"

"Right!"

" **There is no escape for you!"** Forming in front of them was once again the man made of dark mist. **"It's a pleasure to meet you. We are the League of Villains. I know it's impolite but we invited ourselves into this haven of justice to say 'hello'. And besides, isn't this a fitting place for All Might, the symbol of peace, to take his last breath?"** The form seemed to look around him for the man himself. **"I believe he was supposed to be here today and yet I see no sign of him. Was there some sort of change in plans? Ahh, in the end I suppose it doesn't matter. "**

The caps on the fingers of Thirteen's suit opened as they pointed at the mist villain. But before they could do anything, the were interrupted as Bakugou and Kirishima rushed the villain and attacked him directly with an explosion and a rocky fist.

But as the smoke cleared from the blast, **"You should be more careful, children. Or someone might get _hurt_."**

"You two! Get out of the way!" Thirteen shouted.

Dark tendrils flowed from out of the mist, **"I'll scatter you across this facility to meet my comrades and** _ **your death!**_ _"_

The tendrils spread out into the crowd of students before sweeping outward and surrounding them, gathering together into an ever shrinking dome of blinding, rushing, choking mist.

And as Izuku came out the other side of it he found himself tossed into a simulated rock-face.

Well, simulated for where it was. The rock-face was very real, as was the pain he felt when he landed on it.

"Midoriya! Jirou!" he heard.

"Yaoyarozu?" he asked, placing the voice.

"Get up! We're in trouble!"

As Izuku got his bearings he felt compelled to agree. The three of them were split up, Jirou was still getting to her feet and Momo was already having to defend herself from the small army of villains that had been waiting here for them.

-(-)-

A/N: Bit of a recapter (that's a recap-chapter, I like portmanteau). But that happens when not much changes. Went into a bit more detail on the battle scenarios since canon didn't. I was surprised at Mineta's bit for that when I went back to look at it. His power really was perfect for it and it was a section about showing off the class' powers. But he did nothing. Sad face.

Also. The teasing. Oh man, the teasing was fun to write.

You may note I didn't include the scene with Izuku and Bakugou. That was intentional. I'm not fully skipping scenes anymore. If a scene isn't here, that means it didn't happen. Izuku isn't latched on to Bakugou in this version and actually feels like he's hot shit right now (pardon the pun), so feels entirely justified in letting his victory be the entirety of his statement of intent.

Class rep goes to Momo. Iida's assumption about Izuku's analysis of the entrance exam is corrected immediately so he's under no false impressions there. So he instead votes for Momo and so Momo gets the job with Izuku as deputy. And because Izuku didn't get that job under what he felt were false pretences, he keeps it.

Then the recapter continues. USJ, villain attack, yada yada, but what's this? Mountains? Not a lake? Is some shenanigans going on here? Or does the author just not feel like re-writing an entire section of canon with minimal changes like he did for the beginning of this arc?

Hm. Probably the latter.

If you would like to support me directly, there is now a way you can do so through popular donation platform that I'm not allowed to say the name of on this site. You know the one. Please consider helping out. As long as I'm receiving even a single dollar from someone who thinks my writing is worthwhile, I guarantee at least a chapter of something a week.

Thanks for reading.


	4. Tag Team Combination!

Villains.

Izuku wasn't sure how many there were. More than a dozen? _A lot_ more than a dozen, even if his mind didn't want to give him the real, full number. These people, all of them, had chosen a path of doing harm to others for their own gain. And they had come _here_ , to a school facility, on a day a class was being taught. They had come here ready and willing to attack the students. He was facing people like this with real malicious intent for the first time–

 _You're a real hero to me, kid!_

… No. It wasn't the first time. It was so long ago, but that sludge villain taught him a real lesson that would serve him in situations like this. Villains. To people like them, you were a target, an opportunity. Whether it was for quick cash or some more complex objective, you were nothing more than a way to advance their goals. For such people, there was only one response available.

Don't let yourself be a target.

A moment to analyse the situation. Yaoyorozu was on her own but already holding her own, keeping her few attackers at bay. It seemed the villains had seen her quick recovery and actions and decided she was the main threat. Because of that, only a few were taking her on, pinning her down while the others seemed intent on taking himself and Jirou out of the fight quickly. It made sense. Without distractions, their sheer numbers would overwhelm the class representative, no matter how skilled she may be.

In a snap and not even bothering to stand, Izuku was off like a shot with a single kick, launching himself into the crowd of villains in an effort to regroup with Jirou. An arm swung out as he moved, clotheslining a boar-headed villain with the movement.

"Whoa, a speed quirk?!"

"He's fast–"

A kick off the ground. A moment to observe, find the best path, the least aware villains. Another kick, a few steps closer to his classmate. Another moment–

His view was suddenly obscured by a translucent bubble of some kind.

"I got him!" a villain crowed, his hand placed flat against the bubble surrounding the UA student.

Izuku paused for half a moment as he examined the bubble. Then, he punched it. No quirk behind it, just a regular punch. He didn't know how strong the field was, after all. It didn't break. Not even a scratch. But it _did_ buckle.

"Sorry, kid! Can't burst my bubble that easy–"

It buckled. That meant force travelled through it.

The green-haired boy's gaze locked on the villain's hand, still on the bubble.

"What are you–"

Izuku didn't even try to hide what he was about to do, cocking his fist back and pouring some real power into it this time, he aimed a punch squarely into the palm of the villain's hand.

The punch landed. The force passed into the bubble, through it, into the villain's hand.

"Gahahhhhhhhhh!"

The bubble broke. As did the villain's wrist.

It was all the opening Izuku was looking for as he got back to making his way through the crowd. They had closed in on him thinking they had him dead to rights, but a swift kick to a villain's jaw opened a path.

"Jirou, are you okay?!"

Kyoka Jirou only turned to look at him after blasting a villain that was getting too close with her soundwaves. On a glance, the punk-outfitted girl's eyes were as bored as ever, but keen eyes could see the flickers of fearful adrenaline at the situation, and their slight relief at receiving backup. "How's it going, Midoriya? Keeping–" she paused to blast another villain "–busy?!"

"Uhh, I guess?" Izuku answered, launching into another villain and punching her out, before backing up into Jirou in a low fighting stance, the two would-be heroes fighting back to back.

"Ugh, you need to work on your fight banter," the girl said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh. OH!" Izuku exclaimed on getting what she was going for. "I mean, yeah! Super busy, uhh... kicking butt for goodness!"

Jirou just... _stared_ at him, over her shoulder.

"... Yeah, I'll work on it."

"I dunno, I've heard worse," said a snake-haired villain.

"You don't get an opinion!" Jirou shouted, blasting him with sound. "Maybe we should link up with Momo? She's probably–" she said more calmly... Before noticing something strange as she tried to move in that direction. "... Midoriya?"

Izuku had felt the tugging on his back, so knew where this was probably going. "Yeah?"

"Why can't I move?"

"... Okay, some things have happened but it's not a big deal–"

" _I'm stuck to your back!_ "

"It's fine! We can just pull apart–"

"You think the villains will give us time to– woah woah woah woah!" In the middle of berating her classmate, Kyoka Jirou felt herself abruptly lifted off the ground, frantically kicking at the air as she was carried behind Midoriya as he decked a villain with steel skin who was trying to capitalise on the moment.

"Okay, you got me there."

It was at this point Izuku realised because of his posture when he backed into Jirou, his upper back was stuck to her lower back. That and her being a little shorter than him meant standing at his full height, his female classmate's feet couldn't touch the ground.

"Midoriya, you get me off right now or I swear– Wah!"

The boy had lunged forward to bust the head of another villain but only passed through them. Their quirk apparently being to turn into water. The villain cackled to themselves, voice like ripples in a pond. "Gyahahaha! Looks like you just found someone you can't just punch through, boy–" The villain's monologue interrupted by a blast of sound that caused them to lose cohesion.

"Shut the hell up, I'm having a crisis, here!" yelled Jirou.

"... Would it be weird to say this is actually kind of working?"

"Yes!"

-(-)-

Denki Kaminari was finding being attacked by villains to not be that bad of an experience so far. Maybe that had something to do with his extraordinarily lucky break for how it happened.

Sure, it had started out pretty bad, suddenly finding himself dunked in what he later learned was the shipwreck scenario, sinking underwater. Bad turned to worse as he found himself being attacked by villains with heteromorphic fish quirks. You might think having an electric quirk underwater would make for an easy win but he had long learned of the drawback of his quirk. He wasn't entirely immune to his own power and using it underwater? That was just asking to fry his own brain and drown like an idiot.

Another lucky break. He wasn't the only one sent to the shipwreck. Tsuyu Asui, the frog girl had arrived to rescue him and drop both himself and the short one that kind of sucks at everything on the deck of the model ship.

They had taken a moment to take stock of their situation and it took almost no time at all to realise how badly the villains had messed up to putt himself and Asui on the shipwreck. Denki Kaminari decided this was his moment to be awesome.

"Alright you bozos, listen up!" he yelled as he stepped onto the railing of the ship. "You guys must think you're hot shit attacking a school for heroes like this but I got some bad news for ya! Your bosses screwed you! You wanna know what my quirk is?" he asked rhetorically, lightning sparking between his fingers.

"Ah, shit," whined one of the villains.

"That's right! 'Ah, shit' is absolutely right! Now, are you villains gonna swim away quietly with your dorsal fins between your legs? Or do we have to play a little game of toaster in the tub? Huh?! Choose!"

Kaminari couldn't help the surge of pride he felt as he watched the villains slink away, not willing to take lightning to the face. Even if... You know... Technically he couldn't do that without getting in the water. Which meant he couldn't do that at all.

Bluffing like a master! It felt good!

"You know, for the fin joke? You were probably looking for the adipose fin, not the dorsal."

"I'll keep it in mind in future, Asui."

"Call me Tsuyu."

-(-)-

"Alright kiddies, here's how this little thing is going to work."

Things had been going so well.

You know. Relatively speaking. They were still barely trained teenagers in the middle of a villain ambush and vastly outnumbered, but they were holding their own! A number of the villains had sustained injuries severe enough they couldn't keep fighting, meanwhile the students were panting a little (and in... a somewhat awkward circumstance that Izuku was vocally insistent was no one's fault) but entirely capable of fighting their way out.

And then, the leader of this particular group decided to join the fray.

Though, to say he joined the fray would be somewhat inaccurate. From what Izuku knew, the guy had suddenly appeared as if from nowhere and grabbed Momo from her blind spot, making sure to restrain her limbs that her creations had emerged from.

Internally, Izuku was kicking himself for not realising someone was directing the other villains. Their strategy wasn't exactly complicated but it had enough thought put into it that there had to be someone wrangling the otherwise unruly mob of villains into sticking to it.

"Now, first things first, let's set some ground rules, yeah? No sudden movements from the devil kid or his little backpack girlfriend or the swimsuit model gets sent home in a bodybag, got it?"

"Did that asshole just call me a freaking _backpack_?! Midoriya! Turn around so I can blast this guy!" Jirou yelled as she tried to throw her weight in a way that would turn them around.

"What did I say, brat! You want your friend's brain turned to jelly?!"

"Jirou..." Izuku pleaded quietly.

"Tch!" she tutted but calmed down, if reluctantly.

"That's better," the villain commended, his hands still sparking threateningly. "So what you're gonna do next is get on your knees and let my compatriots beat that tar out of you."

"What the hell?! Why would we ever do that?!" shouted Jirou once again.

" _Brain. Jelly._ Damn, hero kids these days, so slow on the uptake."

"Why are you even doing this?" Izuku asked, partially wanting to know, partially to stall for time and think of a plan. "This is a secure facility and you're attacking kids! Do you even have an escape plan? Once the other pros get here–"

"Oh, kid, you just don't see the big picture! The pros being here is the _point!_ Were you not listening before? The Symbol of Peace _dies_ today and _we_ are gonna make that happen! The League of Villains are gonna change the world and there's no way in hell I was gonna turn that down!"

"Wow, you really are a worthless bum of a villain aren't you?" Jirou sniped in a lazy tone. "Tough guy with an electric quirk. Winning the quirk lottery like that and you're still a two-bit thug for some delusional freakshow? Way to fail, bro."

Izuku winced at how thick Jirou was laying it on. "Look, there's no way this ends well for you if you do this! Just let us go and–"

"Shut it! You two are done talking! Last warning, get on your knees or– Guhhhh!" The villain suddenly gasped and doubled over. In the moment of weakness, Momo pulledo ut of his grip, spun around and grabbed the sledgehammer she had just sprouted from her back to slam into the villain's solar plexus. With the momentum of a full rotation she slammed the hammer into the villain's jaw, knocking him clean out as she gasped for air.

With Momo freed and the ringleader out, the three teens cleared up the last few villains willing to fight. Not many, all told. As the numbers advantage slipped away moment by moment, more than a few decided discretion was the better part of villainy and made themselves scarce. Before long, it was just the three students on a faux mountain covered in unconscious villains. Jirou took the opportunity to forcibly peel herself off of Midoriya. "Well, that was an experience," she drawled. "Don't ever do that again."

"Why? I mean it w-uhhhhhhhh..." Izuku began before his brain abruptly shut down at what he was seeing.

"Well! That was exhilarating! And terrifying. But we won!" Momo proclaimed with hand on her hips.

"Uhh, Momo," Jirou started.

"They may not have been the most capable of villains but we stood against them and came out victorious! We should be proud of how far we've come in so short a time!"

"Momo!"

"Yes?"

"Your suit!"

"Huh?"

Looking down, Momo realised what the problem was. When she had created the sledgehammer she had done so from her back to surprise the villain. That had ripped the back of her outfit so thoroughly that it had an open back to match the plunging neckline. The outcome was her suit looking more like a sling bikini. And with the outfit not really _meant_ to be a sling bikini it had led to... wardrobe malfunction. The shoulders were halfway down her biceps, leaving her chest on full display.

"Oh, darn it! I'll make a new one, hold on," she moaned before turning around...

 _And removing it completely._

"!" The sound that escaped Izuku's throat resembled something like a strangled chicken. Jirou had abandoned her earlier demand and willingly jumped onto the boy's back to cover his eyes with her hands, completely uncaring that not only were her hands now stuck to his face, her body was now also stuck wrapped around him.

And even then, it didn't matter. He had seen _everything_.

Did he _really_ have to become a great hero? Some part of him felt like he could die happy right then and there.

"There we go! All fixed!"

With a sigh, Jirou peeled her hands away from Izuku's face, the boy both disappointed and glad that Momo's statement was true. "We should get back to the plaza," Izuku suggested.

"We _should_ regroup with the others as soon as possible," Momo nodded. "Do you think we were the only ones split off?"

"Didn't that mist guy say he was going to scatter us?" asked Jirou. "That doesn't sound like just splitting a couple of us up."

That thought gave Momo pause. "It worries me that our classmates might be struggling as we were. They might not have been so lucky."

"Even so, we have no idea where they are," Izuku thought aloud with a hand on his chin, not even cognizant of Jirou unknowingly resting her head on his shoulder. "Without knowing that, I feel like we'd cause more problems for Thirteen and Mister Aizawa by running around at random."

"Treat it like a rescue operation," Jirou suggested. "We shouldn't get full of ourselves, we're still the ones most at risk here. We should get back and let Mister Aizawa know we're okay."

Momo wrapped her arms around her middle, chewing on her lip in frustration. She knew the technical right thing to do was return to the teachers. Still...

"Momo, they've got this," Izuku insisted soothingly. "We're not even the real targets. The best thing we can do is make sure the pros have one less thing to worry about."

With a sigh out through her nose, the class representative nodded. "Okay. We'll go with your idea. Let's get to the plaza quickly."

As the three started running, or rather two ran while one was getting a piggyback ride, Jirou found herself wondering something now that the adrenaline was leaving that hadn't occurred to her before. As she pulled her chin up from Izuku's shoulder she whispered to herself, "So... Does this mean...?"

"Did you say something, Jirou?"

With a blush unseen by the one carrying her she stammered, "No, no, it's... it's nothing."

"Also... You can call me Kyoka."

-(-)-

Kaminari felt more out of his depth than when he had been unceremoniously dumped in the lake.

As he had that thought, as the connection formed between the current events and his recent experiences and his brain tried to make a joke about it, he realised how far gone he really was. As he watched his teacher being systematically brutalised, the hand villain causing bits of him to crumble away as that giant muscular duck thing slammed his face into the pavement, his brain had decided to spend time making clever plays on words. His mind had seemed to look at his current situation and just said 'nope' and tried to distract, distance itself from it.

Was this what hysteria felt like? He didn't know. Well, he didn't really know what _hysteria_ was. Just that it meant you'd gone a bit crazy. Maybe it was another kind of crazy?

… It was doing it again.

He needed to do something. _They_ needed to do something! They couldn't just sit there hiding in the water and wait for the bad men to go away while their teacher was being killed right in front of them! They were supposed to be heroes!

… Even so, what could they do against _that_?

Asui was a frog girl. Not a good matchup against a two ton platypus, not to mention the guy that could cripple her with a touch. Mineta was Mineta and needed no further comment. And himself? The hand guy could cripple with a touch but so could he. But the platypus would crush him like a bug. His Indiscriminate Shock... Well, not only was he not sure that would work on the platypus, it would hit Mister Aizawa and in the teacher's current state... Not an option.

Was this why his mind was looking to escape? Because the alternative... All they could do was sit. And watch. And feel the crushing helplessness.

And then the mist villain appeared. **"Tomura Shigaraki."**

"Kurogiri? Did you manage to kill Thirteen?"

" **The rescue hero is out of commission but one of the students managed to escape the facility."**

The hand villain grew deathly still and quiet on receiving the news. Slowly, his hands, his real hands, inched upwards before frantically clawing at his neck. "Kurogiri you _fool!_ If you weren't our way out I swear I would _tear apart every atom of your body!_ " As suddenly as the erratic episode appeared, it was gone. And the hand villain Shigaraki was calm again. "If dozens of heroes show up to stop us there's no way we can win. It's game over. Back to the title screen!" He sighed. "And I was looking forward to finishing this today. Dammit. Let's go home."

… What?

… They were... They were leaving?

They were _leaving!_

Kaminari didn't care that his eyes were leaking. The sudden relief that this nightmare was ending crushed any need for bravado he had.

"Oh, before we leave–"

 _Oh no._

"Let's make sure the Symbol of Peace is broken!"

Shigaraki looked right at the students.

 _He knew we were here the whole time!_

" _Let's wreck his pride!_ "

In the blink of an eye, with movements that vaguely reminded Kaminari of how he saw Midoriya move just in pure speed and suddenness, Shigaraki was on them and reaching for Asui's head.

Kaminari's arm moved.

He didn't remember telling it to. It just did.

Maybe he had spent so long just frozen. Just waiting for something he could do to stop this. Maybe when staying frozen stopped being a safe option, the next response kicked in, the one he had longed for but knew was impossible.

He grabbed hold of a reaching arm. His hand lit up with sparks.

"Direct shock. **300,000 volts!** " Kaminari yelled as he poured lightning into the hand-faced bastard.

But he was still in the water.

He had known that part. As all of it was happening, some part of his increasingly scattered mind had catalogued that fact and found it unimportant. So as the powerful electric shock ran through the villain, it also ran through Kaminari. They shared their fate as electricity ravaged their bodies. It quickly grew too much for the student and he released his quirk's power.

The hand villain broke out of the boy's grip, twitching and _furious as he bounded away_. "Alright, ch-change of p-p-lans. Nomu. _Kill that one._ "

Kaminari was no longer aware enough to feel the fear as those words sealed his fate. He was paralysed, trapped in his own body, senses confused and jumbled. He didn't hear the stomping footsteps of the giant, Nomu. He didn't feel Asui try to pick him up with her tongue to get him away. He didn't hear Mineta's cries as he pelted it with sticky balls, peppering the path with them only for Nomu to step on them and rip up the pavement under them to keep on walking.

And he didn't hear the almighty _slam_ as the front entrance to the USJ opened, All Might standing there looking not like a hero, but like a buff but ordinary teacher. Shirt and slacks. No costume.

 _No smile._

-(-)-

"We're finally out of the mountain zone," sighed Momo.

"There's the main stairs!" Jirou called out as the huge structure came into view.

As well as a better view of the main plaza.

"Woah, look at all those villains! Did Eraserhead do all of this?" Izuku marvelled as he saw every villain in the plaza had been knocked unconscious.

"Midoriya! Jirou!" Momo shouted, pointing towards the water.

"All Might?!" Jirou squeaked, though would deny to her dying breath it sounded that way. "We're saved!"

In a flash, the Symbol of Peace himself appeared before them with multiple people in tow. Asui, Mineta, an insensate Kaminari, and a brutalised Aizawa.

"Oh, no!" the class representative gasped on seeing the state of their homeroom teacher.

" **Class representatives, I need you to get your teacher and young Kaminari back to the entrance, they're both gravely injured. I need to deal with our uninvited guests."**

"Sir!" Momo acknowledged, creating two stretchers, putting Aizawa on one and carrying one end, Mineta taking the other end.

"Wait, All Might!" Izuku shouted, "You need to know! They're not here for us, they're here for you! They want to kill you and they seem pretty confident–"

All Might simply raised a hand to silence his successor, before flashing him a thumbs up. **"Young Iida told me everything. Please take care of the injured, young Midoriya. I got this!"**

"... Yes sir!" Izuku nodded firmly, putting Kaminari on the other stretcher and carrying him with Asui.

As the group moved, all of them trying to focus on their goal but heavily distracted by the incredible battle about to take place, Asui had a thought. "Hey, Kyoka, why are you on Izuku's back?"

"Ah..." Jirou mumbled, trying to fight down her blush. "Some stuff happened and... I got stuck. It was easier to just stick with it... No pun intended."

"It actually works out pretty well," Midoriya said with a smile. "I'm great at short range, she's great at long range. We make a good team!"

Amazing fight or not, Jirou buried her face in his shoulder to hide her megawatt blush.

"Ugh, these stairs suck!" Mineta whined. "Yaoyorozu, I'll go first or Mister Aizawa will just go sliding off of the stretcher!"

"Now that you mention it, it is funny that they put such a hazardous structure as the entrance to a rescue training facility," Momo smiled as they started the ascent.

Step by step, the students climbed back to the entrance carrying their injured. Partway up, Sato and Shoji moved down to help them. One taking the place of Mineta and the other Midoriya who was already weighed down (Jirou not appreciating the implication there).

It was then that the fight they had been watching with half an eye took a dangerous turn. All Might, the Symbol of Peace was trapped, grappled partway through the mist villain's gate with Nomu gouging out his stomach.

Midoriya was already running. Then kicking, forcing himself to descend the stairs faster.

"Midoriya what the hell are you doing?!" Jirou yelled in his ear.

He wasn't even thinking as he answered her out loud. "This was their plan! I can't let him die! Not like this! Not yet! I have so much more to learn from him!"

"We can't do anything against that!"

"The mist villain isn't deaf!"

"... What?!"

"He's not deaf! If he can hear then sound can hurt him! Maybe I can't do anything about this on my own but together I think we can save All Might!"

"You're crazy!"

" _I don't care! I won't watch him die!_ "

Jirou was only slightly mollified by her ride's not being entirely a courageous idiot and actually having a plan. "This better work or I'm going to haunt you!"

He didn't acknowledge her words as they were already too close to the action. It was do or die. "Get away from him!" he yelled as he charged in with a punch–

" **How foolish."** Kurogiri appeared in front of the grappling titans, blocking their path and opening a warp gate.

"Now, Jirou!"

"Heartbeat Stereo!"

" **Nnnnnngh!"** the mist villain groaned, the incomplete gate collapsing at his lack of focus. Midoriya's punch continued through and instead of hitting the gate, gave a metallic _clang_ as it struck the lowest point of what looked like a metal neck brace.

A gravelly voiced roar was somehow audible over the continuing thuds of Jirou's attack. "Out of the way, Deku!" From above, Bakugou's gauntleted fist slammed into the metal plate of the mist villain with literal explosive force.

From another direction, ice flowed across the ground and enveloped the form of Nomu, only spreading so far to avoid catching All Might in it.

"Gotcha that time, didn't I you creepy mist bastard!"

"The Symbol of Peace will not fall to delinquents like you."

… Also, Kirishima was there. Apparently.

As Bakugou continued taunting the villain Kurogiri about his defeat and threatening him with small explosions, the apparent leader seemed entirely too calm about the situation. "Nomu."

With that single word, the monstrous creature, still half frozen, sank back through the warp gate, shattering the frozen sections of its body without care. As it made to stand on only one leg, the remaining ice covering its right side shattered, revealing rapidly regrowing tissue. A new arm and leg regrown in seconds.

" **I thought you said his power was shock absorption?"**

"I didn't say that was his _only_ power. Now, let's free our method of escape." Looking at Bakugou and Kirishima guarding Kurogiri, the hand-covered villain merely pointed. "Get 'em, Nomu."

Too fast to see. That was the thought that crossed Bakugou's mind as the giant abomination bore down on him. It didn't even feel like time passed between Nomu being at a distance and then so close the beast dominated his entire vision. And then... He wasn't there anymore. He was instead grouped together with the other students at Izuku's position.

"Oh, man! Kacchan, did you _dodge_ that?!" Izuku asked, impressed even beyond his high expectations of Bakugou.

"Of course I didn't you damn nerd."

" **These are children and you didn't hold back?!"** All Might demanded as the smoke cleared, revealing he had taken the hit for Bakugou to move to boy out of the way.

"Should I have shown restraint against someone holding my companion hostage?" Shigaraki shrugged. "I thought that was what you heroes were all about! Violence is okay as long as it's in the service of others, isn't that right? Or is that only if you have the label of 'hero'? That's so arbitrary it pisses me off! You think you're the Symbol of Peace? You're just a government sponsored instrument of violence. And of course! Violence breeds more violence. I'll make sure the world understands that once you're _dead_."

" **Hmph. Villains always try to make their actions sound noble. But admit it, you're just doing this because you enjoy it!"**

The eyes were all they needed to see to understand the glee in Shigaraki's expression.

"We have them outnumbered," Todoroki stated with determination.

"Six to three is pretty good odds, especially now that we know the mist guy's weakness," Izuku agreed.

"You and backpack girl only count as one, Deku," Bakugou sneered.

"Would people stop calling me a backpack!"

"Come on, with All Might's help, we can take 'em!"

" **NO."** All Might bellowed. **"Get out of here. I thank you for your assistance but this time it's different! Just sit back and watch a pro at work!"**

"But All Might, your injuries! And your ti–" Izuku started to say before stopping himself.

All Might's only response was a thumbs up before focusing entirely on the villains in front of him.

" **Allow me to give you a lesson. On what it means to be a _true hero!_ "**

-(-)-

A/N: This is another one of those moments where a scene is going to go so identically to the canon material that I may as well just skip it. Let me know if you _really_ want me to write it but seriously, it's just going to be yet another novelisation of that scene you probably watched a dozen times on youtube. It would feel like padding to me but I bow to the will of the people.

Okay.. Let's see, things to talk about. The backpack thing. It seemed like a fun idea so I ran with it and it became _such_ shipping fuel I can't really believe it myself and I wrote it.

Kaminari. Yeah. His shit got _dark_. Figuratively and literally. He's probably gonna be pooping charcoal briquettes after zapping himself that hard. Midoriya already went through a scene like that in canon but Kaminari hadn't. So... Now he has.

That's about it though. Thankfully after this chapter we get some downtime and I get to do some harem romcom shenanigans for a bit before the sports festival.

If you would like to support me directly, there is now a way you can do so through popular donation platform that I'm not allowed to say the name of on this site. You know the one. Please consider helping out. As long as I'm receiving even a single dollar from someone who thinks my writing is worthwhile, I guarantee at least a chapter of something a week.

Thanks for reading.


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